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Beethoven Piano Sonatas

We now enter the last of Beethoven’s early piano sonatas, the sonata in Bb (Op. 22), and it is a fine and grand ending at that. It is the last sonata where Beethoven uses the conventional four-movement format of fast sonata, slow sonata, scherzo, rondo. While he did compose four-movement sonatas later in his career, they all depart from convention in form and content. The “Jagleid” sonata (in Eb, Op. 31) has no serious slow movement, the sonata in A (Op. 101) and “Hammerklavier” sonata (in Bb, Op. 106) put the scherzo movement 2nd and the slow movement 3rd. Even the sonata in Eb (Op. 27), that follows this sonata right after, follows a revised four-movement pattern, though to less effect.

I mentioned before how Beethoven’s earlier four-movement sonatas, though intricate and beautiful, were stilted and forced in some ways, as if Beethoven was still trying to teach himself how to construct the many Classical forms he inherited from Haydn, Salieri, Mozart, Clementi, and other older masters. This sonata, the sonata in Bb (Op. 22) is the last of these earlier sonatas. Beethoven, in all his later four-movement sonatas rewrites the old format to suit his purposes. The sonatas in A (Op. 101) and Bb (Op. 106) put their heavy, slow movements later so as to better lead to a great, satisfying finale. The new format levels the dramatic weight of the sonata at a climactic ending, not at the first movement, a problem Beethoven worked to solve for decades.

Allegro con brioThis sonata in Bb (Op. 22) has the style of a piano concerto – like the sonata in A (Op. 1) – complete with imitations of virtuoso piano passages, orchestral accompaniment, and orchestral tuttis; all of this is most obvious in the first movement. The very main subject itself in Bb imitates a quiet orchestral beginning with softly playing snare drums, a grand statement, and a decisive half cadence. The orchestra builds up in a crescendo as two voices climb up the broken Bb chord together. The grand statement itself is made of two broken descending scales, both built on the notes A (leading tone) and G (submediant), the first ending in an imperfect authentic cadence, the second decisively landing on Bb (tonic). – However, Beethoven surprises us by writing this passage in subito piano (suddenly playing it softly) to hold us back a bit. – A second ascent, now in a full forte, takes us up the Gm broken chord, then slams down on F (dominant), ending the main subject in a half cadence. This both leaves the music open to further lines and prepares for the usual modulation to the dominant. Like in many sonatas before, Beethoven makes his main subject as complicated and dynamic as he can.

So now what? Beethoven delays us a bit with a surprising episode; he undermines his main subject by putting the rising Bb chord passage as a baseline for counterpoint. He even surprises us with harmonies; he jumps to D (mediant), then goes down the circle of 5ths like this: D-Gm-C-F-Bb. This episode concluded, Beethoven gets down to business with a straightforward modulation. Tremolos jump to C (secondary dominant), and hover there while circulating among F and Bd7, the base hums on repeated C notes the entire time, making a secondary dominant base. All this builds expectation for a firm C-F cadence, to solidly nail us to the dominant, a cadence Beethoven avoids completely by softly trailing to F.

The subordinate subject in F builds on the ascending broken tonic chord with two voices moving in parallel thirds, like the main subject; but here we have sweet woodwinds, the virtuoso flurries kept firmly in an F base (new tonic). But keeping the music this way would be boring, so Beethoven suddenly dips into D7 (submediant). The virtuoso base truly goes down a broken D7 chord, but all the D7 chord’s notes are offbeat, so it sounds like Beethoven is going down a C#7 broken chord, so you could call this section bitonal. The F# leading tone in the melody is strongly expected to resolve to Gm, but Beethoven never does so; instead he peaks his melodic arc at C (the secondary dominant) and plows down the scale to loudly land on F (the tonic). Beethoven moves down the circle of fifths again, with the general harmonic plot being D7-Gm-C-F, but he does mutate Gm to Gd and G7, which further develops the music.

We enter a second subordinate subject in F, but this time using parallel thirds to move down a broken chord. It builds a melodic arc from A to D, then breaks that pattern at the end, as Beethoven often does, to jump to G, then falls back down to the tonic. Beethoven leaps down the 3rd with harmonies with Ehd7-C7-A7, which does not resolve to F, as you would expect an Ehd7 chord to do, but prolongs the tension to resolve to Bb (subdominant). Beethoven develops the subordinate subject with a synchopated variation, but finishes it on A, not at a proper resolution. Beethoven builds a lengthy bridge with this open question in A, full of flying arpeggios and broken octave scales in the treble while an active base fills in harmonies below; something you see a pianist do in almost every piano concerto. The closing statement drops suddenly to pianissimo, a base in F (tonic) acting as a drumroll. A treble in three voices starts low but climbs higher, with many diminished progressions: Ahd7-Dm, Ad-B, Edh7-F, and Ed7-F. The diminished chords makes a darker and more mysterious tone, giving the right feel of suspense – until Beethoven suddenly goes to fortissimo! The full orchestra returns to climb up the F scale, peaking at the subdominant, and falling down the F scale to end the exposition.

Beethoven begins his development with a benign precore in F; the snare drum cell breaks into little dominant-tonic motives, and we have an orchestral tutti in F7 that emphasizes the subtonic as its highest note. It suddenly shifts gears into D7 (submediant) as it falls down. The first core is based off the rumbling, suspenseful moment of the closing statement. It starts in D7 (where the precore left off) but soon resolves to Gm, revealing the true home key. The harmonies revolve around Gm, but extends slightly through C#hd7-D cadences, in other words keeping the core suspended on the dominant. The second core is built on a solo virtuoso treble on a broken chord of dominant or leading tone, then resolving to an orchestra tutti – this time developed with parallel sixths and thirds. Thus we have these progressions as the keys keep changing: D7-G, Bd7-C.

The third core keeps this harmonic trend, but turns the treble into ascending and descending arpeggios while the base draws out a broken chord; both parts function to more definitely outline harmonies, which are now more condensed. The harmonies resolve in these progressions: Ed7-F, G7-Cm, Gbd7-F7, Bbm7-Bbd-Eb7. The retransition falls to a low, suspenseful tone; the treble keeps the arpeggios running but its top note keeps hovering over the Eb or Eh note. The base itself takes up the orchestral tutti motif, but softly and only the contrabase is involved. This way we cycle through Eb7-C7!-F7. The base motif breaks down into only the descending line, a held base note in F being a constant, which prepares for a F7-Bb cadence to return us to the home key. Beethoven transforms the downward line motif into an upward F7 scale but denies us a cadence. Instead, he suspends us on a soft, prolonged F7 chord, the top Eb note (subdominant) chosen to further soften both harmony and melodic arc.

The main subject in Bb returns with no change. The transition starting, the brief episode is slightly developed as the opening snare drum motif exchanges base and treble roles in Bb. The soft descending scale is developed as well, the melodic arc now prolonged from Ab (subtonic) to Bb (tonic); the harmonies progress in a similar fashion but using more distant progressions: B-Cm, Eba-Ab, D-Gm, Ad-Bb, Ehd7-F. The tremolo part of the transition trains its focus on Bbm (mutated tonic) rather than C. The subordinate subject repeats but all harmonies based around Bb, as do the second subordinate subject and the long bridge to the closing statement. The closing statement assumes its old character, revolving around Bb; it briefly hops to different harmonies like Ebm7 (subdominant minor) and Cm (supertonic), while we have diminished progressions thus: Ahd7 (w/Cb)-Bb, and Fhd7 (w/Cb)-Bb. The orchestra leaps into a grand tutti, the snare drum motif softly returns with a leading tone-tonic progression, and two final tutti chords.

Adagio con molto espressioneThe humming base chords throughout the second movement in Eb are typical of a slow movement in a piano concerto, while the movement itself is in sonata form without the repeated exposition. The main subject in Eb is built on the upward turn and a held out dissonant leaning tone, the first sentence rising: G-Ah (leading)-Bb-Bh (leading)-C (appoggiatura)-D. In essence, we move the mediant of Eb to the median of Bb7, and the harmonies in the base follow suit. The second sentence takes a different approach, built on notes a minor 3rd apart: F-Ab, F#-Ah. Beethoven then breaks the pattern to develop material, in this case using an Eb arpeggio to reach a high Bb (dominant) before falling down an arpeggio to C (submediant), the harmony drifting to Ab and Aba (subdominants both), then Fm (supertonic). Beethoven, never leaving well enough alone, hits an extra sforzando note in C, higher than the Bb high note, and finally falls to Eb. What follows is a kind of closing statement of the main subject, built on a long descending broken Eb chord, arriving to a warm and melancholy cadence in cello and base lines.

We enter a brief transition to take us to Bb, built on an abridged version of the closing statement, itself built on the rising and falling 3rd. This way the melody is built on an Eb chord: G-Bb-Eb. Now Beethoven must resolve his transition down to a Bb (dominant) note, while also modulating to that same harmony. He does so by taking his melody down a chromatic scale from Eb to Bb, while his base acts as counterpoint to guide the harmonic progression through upward chromatic cells: Ah-Bb, Eb-F. Beethoven drifts a bit to Cd7-Gm-Ebm7, but he ultimately he cadences with a diminished chord: Ed7-F7+4-Bb.

The subordinate subject is based on a descending scale of complex rhythms and small note values, with a brief stretto where the tenor takes after the soprano ceases to climb up again. First time in Bb: the subject falls from D to D two octaves below, the soprano turning upward to F (dominant). Second time in Eb7a: subject falls from D to Bb in the base, while the soprano turns upward to Bb as well. Then the melody breaks up into leading tone cells, going up the Bb chord and down the Cm chord. Beethoven augments his melody with ever smaller note values so the subordinate subject may reach its climax, and to bring out a virtuoso passage typical in a piano concerto. The virtuoso passage peaks at a high F note (dominant) before falling down an elaborate road built on the Eb chord, then a long chromatic scale rising to that high F again, and finally an F7 arpeggio fall to Bb (tonic). The closing statement builds on a rising 2nd and falling 3rd, with an offbeat leading town first. The harmony can be interpreted as A (major leading tone)-Bb-F7-Bb.

The precore of the development is simple, where Beethoven takes the turn and leading tone motifs of the first subject, climbing up a Bd broken chord as the base hums a G base note, making the overall harmony G7 (submediant major of Bb). After Beethoven reaches the important F note his melody divides into two parts among soprano and alto, as they both move their way down the scale; the soprano moves F-Eh-D-Cb and the alto in a parallel 6th – but broken by moments it leaps a fifth to the subtonic of the chord and falls down a m2nd. All this happens while the base moves down the circle of 5ths: C7-F7-Bb7-Eb7-Abm. So we arrive to a brief three voice core; the soprano melody rises and falls a m2nd, the alto and tenor move in parallel thirds. The harmony now moves up the circle of 5ths in leading tone progressions: Gd7-Abm, Dhd7-Ebm, Bd7-Bb7, Ad-Bb. The retransition holds out the soprano on Bb and repeats an Ah-Bb leading tone sequence while a fourth voice, the base, arrives to hold out a low Bb note. Beethoven hovers on Bb (dominant of Eb) to prepare us to return to Eb (tonic).

The main subject in Eb repeats but with the melody augmented with embellishments, again quite common in a piano concerto. In addition, Beethoven throws in more leading tones, both to suspend the melody (F#-G notes) and to spice up the key notes in arpeggios. The closing statement cuts to the transition straightaway with no extra cadences while transition takes a longer chromatic descent down an Eb octave. The base is built on cells rising up a m2nd; the cells themselves hop down and up the base registers. The harmonic progression takes a surprising twist by leaping to harmonies a M2nd and m3rd away, such as Ab-Gb-Bb9 and modulating back to the tonic through Fb-Gb7-Bb7-Eb. The subordinate subject and closing statement follow the same program as the exposition, just all around Eb.

MenuettoThe minuet and trio in Bb are refreshingly simple after the grand first and second movements. The minuet subject is built up a rising Bb chord, then once it reaches a Bb (tonic) it moves up the scale through dotted notes to F (dominant). Beethoven keeps the base, based on thirds, interesting through rising leading tones. After this small modulation to the dominant, the subject resolves by rising and falling in broken Eb and Ad chords, while the arpeggio base keeps the harmonic context in F7. Then Beethoven uses a turn motif to climb up the Ahd7 chord to a G note (subtonic), then cadences to Bb. The baseline in turn holds on to the dominant note, while the tenor moves down the scale from Eb to Bb.

The development comes is composed of a sentence divided into two parts. The first part is a tremolo built on the C#d7-D progression, building to a fortissimo crescendo. The high treble takes over, falling from a high D (dominant) to G (tonic); in this way D is established, then subverted by becoming the dominant as the music modulates to Gm through Ad-Gm-Ahd7-Gm. Gm is itself the submediant and relative minor of Bb. The second sentence: the tremolo is built on the Bb7-Cb progression, using the Neapolitan, but holding out the dominant-tonic progression that typically comes afterward until the very last moment; the melody falls from Ab (subtonic) to Ah (leading tone) and the harmonies proceed in Bd7-Cm progressions, only entering Bb-F-Bb at the lead us back to the reprise. The reprise carries as usual, but Beethoven adds a codetta at the end. The melody’s broken chords carry out through Gm7-Bb-Bb, the harmony progresses Bb-Eb-Bb-Cm+4. The end of the codetta is unusual as the melody grounds itself on D-Eb (leading tone to subdominant), the harmony exchanging Bb-Cm+4, and only making a F7-Bb cadence at the last moment.

In the minore, Beethoven lets the base put many turns into a virtuoso chain while the treble becomes a set of block chords. The base tumbles down in such a manner that it falls down and up Gm and D broken chords as to be able to rise up to a D note (dominant) in the tenor range. The melody follows a simple path, D (dominant) leaping to G (tonic) but falling to F# (leading tone) to end on the dominant harmony. The “resolution” of the minore ends in the dominant; the treble and base spell out a Ed-F progression but breaks a Ehd7 progression with the secondary dominant, moving A-D. The melody is itself bizarre; it leaps from G (tonic) to C# (leading tone to the dominant) to D (dominant). The melody, in a way, progresses D-G and G-D, the opposite pattern you would usually expect.

Beethoven follows a brief development where both treble and base move contrapuntally down in 3rds in a virtuoso flurry; three motifs overlap each other in three voices. Beethoven’s melody starts in a high Ab (mutating D to Dd – an interesting turn), and the key notes keep falling from G down an Ab7a chord, landing to the Gm harmony to begin the reprise. The harmony revolves around Cm and Gm through: G-Cm, Ad-D-Gm. The reprise is short, with no extra material, in fact shortened; the melody D note (dominant) leaps to G (tonic) but then to C (subdominant) – small harmonic movement down the circle of 5ths – then a dominant-tonic cadence. The harmonies follow the same Ad-D-Gm progression as in the development, giving the revived minore subject a new perspective.

AllegrettoThe last movement in Bb is ostensibly a rondo, and similar to the rondo in the sonata in Eb (Op. 7) in holding complex subjects with three or more voices, though thankfully the harmonies are not too complicated. The main subject in Bb begins up on an F note (dominant) and functions by dipping and rising, using a dissonant leading tone (like in the second movement) to lean on the last note of the phrase. Our first phrase, the question, does this by building around the notes of the F chord (dominant), leaning on a C note (secondary dominant). The second phrase, the answer, builds around a Bb7a chord, ending on a D note (median of tonic). The base voice hangs on A (leading tone) and Bb (tonic) during both respective phrases. The main subject resolves itself by using Alberti to hover on G and F notes, scales up from D to a high D (median) and resolves on F (dominant), where it started. The harmony gets interesting at this point as G (submediant major) replaces Gm, as one would expect. But the main subject is not fully resolves. It repeats in a variation, treble in octaves, base an octave lower to give a fuller range from highest to lowest notes. Extra Ab and Ah notes enter in an alto part, putting a hard dissonance on the G harmonies while complementing the F harmonies. An extra phrase acts as a codetta of sorts; a chromatic scale up from Bb to high Bb, with augmented notes, peaking at the tonic to signal a firm resultion, and a perfect authentic cadence to conclude it.

Beethoven transitions from tonic to dominant through a brief episode, using two complex little motifs based on the rising 3rd, one to add tension, the other to resolve. We have two harmonic progressions in this manner: Bb-Cm-F7-Bb, then Bb-C-C7-F, where Cm (supertonic) mutates into C (secondary dominant), allowing the C7-F cadence. The subordinate subject comes in two parts; the first part is made of simple rising arpeggios with the notes held out, the top note consistently A, while the harmony stays in F, only once veering to Bb7 and Dd, then topping on a high F note (tonic).

Then comes a long descent of synchopated octaves, with the base acting as counterpoint and root the harmonies. So Beethoven moves the melody down from F (tonic) to a lower F, but with a slight upward curve. A bit more comes afterward where the structure of the base duplicates in the melody, which itself uses leading tones while the key notes move up and down a broken F chord, and end with syncopated alto and tenor voices in parallel thirds. A new sentence emerges in the subordinate subject, rising arpeggios, similar to those at the very start, moving up and down different chords, the base holding rising notes to also spell out a harmony. The F-C7 progression happen twice, then the melody condenses, keeps climbing up over and aver again, peaking at F (tonic) at the very top, harmonies being F7-Bbm (a small surprise) then falls down the Gb7 chord (Neopolitan). The closing statement acts also as a retransition, since it is a rondo, built on two descending scales complimenting each other throw counterpoint, but as it intensifies, only one scale survives, that starts at a high F and repeats over and over again, then augments, the peak notes traveling through F-Gb-G.

The main subject returns in Bb with no change, but a variation of the transition appears in Bbm (tonic minor) to act as a precore in development would. Beethoven takes advantage of harmonies related to Bbm that would otherwise be distant, such as Ab, but now we modulate to a new key through C-Fm, and Bd7-C-Fm; to the dominant minor. The second subordinate subject in Fm acts as a development of sorts. The soprano uses C (dominant) and F (tonic) as its top notes to lynchpin the alto as it follows a dipping and rising melodic arc, the tenor and base moving in parallel thirds, in opposing counterpoint. The subject makes two attempts to each a climax, a tactic Beethoven used to keep building suspense. The soprano makes the first attempt (harmony in Bbm), climbing from F (tonic) to C (dominant), but this lifts all voices up an octave, so the alto tries climbing from Ah (Fm briefly mutates to F7) to F (tonic). This success a quick and savage motif tear down the melody from a high F down two octaves.

Beethoven gives us a second precore, one even longer and more convoluted than the first. We starts with the first precore’s motif, slightly more embellished, and slowly rises up the treble clef with it, fitting whatever harmony it is in, starting in Gb but soon falling into a nexus of Bbm-Cm-F7. Two new motifs enter, of the same nature but moving in opposite counterpoint, and they alternate in stretto, developing the rhythm. Beethoven has no clear melodic arc in this area, neither a clear harmonic progression; he uses the change to jump around various odd keys related to Fm, such as Ebm, Gd,Db, Cd, Cm, Gb, and he finally lands to Bbm through Ebm-Bbm-F7-Bbm. The subordinate subject enters again, but in Bbm (tonic minor), and repeats itself the same way, save for forte climax where the Bb note leaps to the F note, not up the octave. This is just one example of how the dominant note is so important to Beethoven since it harmonically grounds the work in tonic or dominant, keeps the music ambiguous to a certain extent, keeps tension as it has not resolved yet, and makes modulating to distant keys easy.

The retransition to the main subject uses the dominant in a unique; the melody uses a chromatic dynamic between Gb and F notes while the harmony progresses in Chd7-F (only one Ad7 is the exception). And this way we return to the main subject once more in a sort of recapitulation. The main subject enters a unique variation with broken octaves, normal octaves, parallel sixths, and heavily embellished melodies – yet the harmonies and basic melodic arcs stay the same; a true variation. The transition and subordinate subject remains the same but centering on Bb, though the rising arpeggios at the end emphasize Dd and Eb, signaling a subdominant, as important in all recapitulations. A small tonally ambiguous variation of the main subject is added in, using three melodic arcs to bring us to the retransition; built on C-F notes, D-G notes, and Ab-D notes. The Bb harmony, which should be clear, is blurred by being mutated in Bd so often, while the familiar F (dominant) is replaced with Gm, Eb, and Cm, all related keys but not providing the solid cadence a dominant harmony can give. The retransition mirrors its old self, though a rising chromatic scale brings us back to the main subject while we have an F (dominant) basso continuo.

Another variation of the main subject ensues, though it is not so outlandish, the melody simply being augmented to triplets and 32nd notes; later with the octaves the triplets get broken to add more diversity. The movement ends in a coda that is especially beautiful even by Beethoven’s standards, built from the transition’s motif inverted; the soprano repeats F (dominant) while the alto climbs from Bb (tonic) to Eb (subdominant). The soprano then assumes the melodic line while alto fills in the harmony, rising from Bb (tonic) to F (dominant) before falling back to Bb. The sentence repeats with the base embellished in an orchestral drone. The second little phrase, where the soprano soars high, is twice repeated in crescendo, climaxing to fortissimo where the entire orchestra of the piano concerto joins in. The movement quietly trails off, soprano and alto falling in parallel 3rds, where the melodic arc of the main subject is “perfected”; F falls to F and simply rises in Bb, this happening twice. A soft dominant-tonic cadence, then a sudden loud one!

The piano sonata in G (Op. 14, No. 2) still keeps a light and witty mood like it’s counterpart, the sonata in E (Op. 14, No. 1) but brings back some of complex form from Beethoven’s heavier sonatas. However, the sonata in G is lighter than its counterpart since it’s middle movement is a pleasant march and not the solemn, medieval dance we saw before. Beethoven tends to user larger and more complex forms to convey heavy emotions, but this rule is not absolute as this sonata is a comedy of manners.

Allegro
The first movement is in sonata form, per usual, and right from the upbeat Beethoven employs his usual trick of beginning a subject at the dominant of the intended key, in this case D, before resolving it as opposed to simply starting at the “proper” key itself, in this case G. The main subject is built on the descending triad while using a sharpened leading tone before the mediant; A# to B, while the base is a rising triad. Beethoven peaks his subject at a high C, the subdominant, before extending the descending triad into syncopated descending Am7 notes before falling from D to G, dominant to tonic. Beethoven averts from using C, the subdominant, and opts for a minor sevenths chord, the submediant of Am7 instead.

The transition begins, and Beethoven modulates from G to D during this phase by slowly moving his baseline up the scale from a low G in the base climbing to an A in the tenor, putting the harmony in A so he can resolve to the new tonic key in D. Beethoven builds a simple melody from a descending whole step into a syncopated melodic line, then augments into sixteenth notes, locking the key notes as F#, D, and A, the D triad. The harmonies Am-G#d-A-E7 cycle in this manner, mutating Am, the supertonic, into A, the secondary dominant, until the harmony falls on A and the melody itself rises to a high A.

The subordinate subject evokes the image of two divas as the soprano register is occupied by two parts a 3rd interval part: a comedy of manners indeed. Beethoven highlights the m2nd interval and breaks the melody’s fall at the last moment with a half cadence, then smoothly leads the subordinate subject to developing material, a small gentle arc built from the F# note, the mediant, while of Bm, the submediant, and E7, the secondary dominant, spice up the harmonies. The melody augments into 3rd notes but its key notes are the Bm triad, the submediant, while the base climbs G-G#-A to the dominant harmony, then resolves to a half cadence on the C#d leading tone.

Beethoven lets the two divas return to make their closing statements; rather than short snippets of arpeggios and cadences, we get a long melodic sentence, letting the divas expand the movement and make their presence heard. The soprano posits a question with material based on the F# note, the base provides an answer with an A-A#-B line, their dialogue landing on an imperfect cadence three times before finally settling the issue. The tenor joins the divas and base so a complete SATB chorus of four voices carries out the entire exchange.

So we move to the precore, which Beethoven uses to build up to and smoothly transition to the core; he returns to his main subject, but now mutates the home key into Gm, and even plays some subdominant: Cm. The main subject develops through imitation in the treble and base, the harmony lingering in Fhd7, the subtonic of Gm. We are in the air as to where Beethoven will lead us next, but we know that it will most likely take us down the circle of fifths, which Beethoven does, taking us to Bb, the median of Gm. The two divas return to sing their usual first phrase, but then linger on Eb and Cm, and their respective leading tones. Beethoven uses the base to cleverly fill in all sorts of harmonies that have Eb and Cm notes in them while leading us to the core proper: F7-Cd7-Cm-Ab. Beethoven is resourceful with his diminished chords as always, since they are ambiguous by nature; the F# base implies F#d7, but it is also Cd7 in all but name, with the exact same notes, letting him easily go to Cm.

Beethoven enters the core with a sudden forte while he makes the harmonic transition just as sudden; Cm jumps to Ab without any dominant or leading tone to prepare us. The core’s subject expands on the main subject with a run up and down the scale, meanwhile the harmony jumps to the dominant of the new key before resolving to the new key. Oddly enough, most of the peak notes of the base line are the tonic of the old harmony. Thus we start Ab but leaps to D7-Gm, then to C7-Fm and F7-Bb+4. The triplet riffs Beethoven plays in the treble change with the harmony, making a downward melody that travels from the Eb to C notes, then Fh to D notes; most of these notes are the mediant of their relative chords. Beethoven develops the scale and makes melody’s peak note Ab, the subtonic of Bb; so we have a Bb7 chord, making us expect Eb.

And Beethoven delivers on this promise, the main subject entering on Eb. Most of us would expect the recapitulation to begin at this point, but this is a false reprise as it is in the wrong key, and it functions as the precore for yet another core. Beethoven develops on the dotted note descending figure, now starting on the Fh note, the secondary dominant, and uses it to go completely down the scale to Bb before leading us to D, while the harmonies themselves make use of dominants leading to relative keys to Eb, such as G-Cm7 and D-Gm. Beethoven starts his second core in D7 leading to Gm, and stays on this harmonic scheme as the second core is brief. The treble line goes wild with 16th note scales, an augmenting of the baseline from the first core, while the base is essential the main subject inverted and using a C# note at the end to lead to the D note.

The retransition stays on D7 as far as the base of triplet notes is concerned, this drawn out dominant harmony landing on G at the very end. The melody has a different idea; the motif of the main subject returns in base and soprano lines with various leading tones of C#m-D and G#d-A, and ends up descending through a long chain of sharpened leading tones while developing the theme of descending through triads, descending through the F7a and Am, and finally holds us on a C# note.

The recapitulation starts; the main subject stays the same. The transition does have C, the subdominant, as the harmony in the base, but the melody keeps playing an A note on the downbeat, making the overall harmony Am7, and Beethoven even uses Dm9, D9, and D+4. These interesting harmonies disrupt the subdominant harmony we expect to hear in a recapitulation as the melody keeps playing the “wrong” notes on the downbeat. Again, this is another of Beethoven’s tactics.

Beethoven carries on the subordinate subject and closing phrases as usual, but ends the closing statement with some new material with C harmonies in it, even peaking at a C note before falling down a C triad, at last having some subdominant. The coda, a final reprise of the main subject, always pays some last respects to the subdominant, with the melody not interfering with the C triad at the base with any A note but instead peaking at C to compliment it. The dotted note figure develops into a falling G scale of 16th notes, landing on a low G, the tonic. However, Beethoven uses the base to make the harmony D9, a less common but frequent form of the dominant. Beethoven takes the main subject motif on a tour through a few more notes: D, the dominant, to C, the subdominant, to B, the mediant, ending on an imperfect cadence.

Andante
The second movement is a variation on a march, light-hearted and seemingly simple but with colorful dominants and leading tones to various harmonies related to C. The first phrase of the subject is simple enough, turning and rising to F, the subdominant, before falling to D so the harmony lands on an inauthentic cadence. Round two: Beethoven rises to A, the submediant, before falling back to another inauthentic cadence, using an E7-Am progression along the way, then makes another effort; he makes a long climb up the scale, stopping twice on a G harmony to emphasize the dominant, the first progression D7-G, the second Am7-Gd7-G. The melody culminates on C, the subdominant, while the harmony is D7, before falling on G, the dominant.

Beethoven shifts harmonies as he develops his subject through two descending scale figures. On the first time, melody starts at a G note and peaks at a C note, but Beethoven returns to the C harmony to modulate briefly to F, the subdominant. The second time, our melody starts from A, the submediant, and falls to B, the leading tone, with the harmonies changing to C#d-Dm and F#d7-G. Beethoven leads us back to the dominant so he can reprise his subject on the tonic key. So our first phrase comes back but an octave higher, but it doesn’t stop on an imperfect cadence; it quickly protests that little defeat with a sudden forte on G before falling to C. Round two: the melody makes a chromatic rise to F, the subdominant, the base giving us the progressions of C#d-Dm and B-Em. The melody falls from F to C, from subdominant to tonic while the base gives the harmonic context of F-C-G7-C.

I spent so much time on the melody because it is intricate for such a light and childish subject – Andras Schiff said it sounded like playing with toy soldiers – and Beethoven stays very faithful to it throughout the movement. This is not like the Diabelli variations where Beethoven builds his variations from the harmonic structure up; these variations are very Classical in that sense. However, rather than adding notes to the melody to make it fancier as Haydn and Mozart would have done, Beethoven plays around with all the other voices and explores how they relate to the melodic subject.

The first variation has synchopated dominant notes and 8th note scales in the notes, while the melody subject itself exchanges between base and tenor parts, returning to the soprano part at the end while the base synchopates with the melody. The second variation has the staccato melody and base play at different times, a common device Beethoven uses for comedic effect, as he seems to have trouble making his hands play together. The base exchanges between a base part, that largely stays on the notes of C, the tonic, G, the dominant, and F, the subdominant, while the tenor line moves as counterpoint, and often features chromatic notes to flesh out the harmonies. The third variation takes a different style; the funny staccatos are exchanges for elegant legatos. The melodic subject is now made of the peak notes of triplet figures in the treble while the base becomes an elegant melodic line of its own in counterpoint.

The coda begins exactly the same as the subject before any variations happened, but all parts are an octave higher and it abruptly stops at a G#d-Am7 deceptive cadence. Three pianissimo chords follow, then a sudden fortissimo chord finishes the piece. Beethoven borrows this device from Haydn’s “Surprise” symphony (in G, Hob. 1/94), using it as both a prank to make us jump from our seats and a satisfying dramatic finish.

Allegro assai
My Beethoven sonata book labels the third movement in G a scherzo, which is correct in beat but misleading in form. While the movement is in 3/8 time it has a rondo form. Beethoven does not bother to balance out the first movement with a strong last movement, because though it does have witty strettos and tactical fermatas on the dominant harmony, the second movement provides the most emotional weight and technical subtleties to balance out the first movement. This movement; a little flourish at the end likes many Classical last movements in the days of Haydn and Mozart, but still with wit and substance.

The rondo’s main subject is based on a motif: a little sweep of three notes. Beethoven puts many little motifs around the G scale to build a subject. He uses a sharpened leading note like he did in the first movement, peaking at C# and D, the dominant. As the phrase resolves, the tenor moves in 3rds with the soprano, creating F#, a major leading harmony, before going to G. The melody rises up and peaks at D once more, but quickly falls down to G, making the progression F#d7-G with the tenor part. Beethoven develops his subject by turning his little sweeps into triplets, starting at D, the dominant, and finishing at C, the subdominant. The triplets are lengthened, with imitation in the treble and base, the treble peaking at a high C note and falling to an F# note, suspending us in the leading tone and D7 harmony. The main subject reprises its first phrase, rises to D, the dominant, but the melody falls down to G, the tonic, twice.

Beethoven kicks off the subordinate subject with a leap to the distant B dominant of Em, resolving to Em, the submediant of G; the triplets become arpeggios, ending in G and B notes. We hear four calls, three of them in this pattern, the last call progressing E-Am, letting us easily progress to D7, the dominant of G. Beethoven holds us there in suspense and comedy with a long silence, as if he forgot what to play next. The subject in G returns with no alterations, but then we encounter a bridge where the subject’s development material swaps hands, then a stretto of rising triplets put together without breaks, each one culminating in an F note, the subdominant. The entire bridge is in G7, preparing us for a subordinate subject in C, the subdominant, but a suspended D# leading note implies an Em key.

But this is a false alarm. We reach a second subordinate subject in C, made of a singing melody and a graceful slurred arpeggio base, greatly contrasting the quirky and playful subject. The melody builds on rising from C# to G, the dominant of C, then falling back either to C#, the question leading to a secondary dominant, or Ch, the tonic answer. Meanwhile the base notes make a chromatic descent from C to G. Together, the chromatic notes of the treble and base make the interesting progression C#d7-A-Dm-Dd-G-C. The usual Am becomes A instead while through Dd-G we see the strange diminished dominant harmony.

The subordinate subject evolves further as Beethoven takes us through new material; here the melody is built on parallel 3rds falling from G to D. We also see Beethoven stick a leap to A, the submediant, to briefly delay the final D note, another trope he often employs. The base assumes a similar melody through the tenor part, the Eb notes mutating the tonic into Cm. The base at this point uses leading notes to bring about F#d and D7, especially when it rises in scales build on G and F# notes, implying a return to the key of G. However, the subordinate theme reprises its role, using G7-C progressions and using subdominant to tonic leaps to lead us to new material in C.

We encounter the main subject again, but in C; the false reprises peaks on the dominant, then the soprano and tenor fall a long way in thirds, their path built on the C and F#d triads using that resolving cell in the main subject. Then the true main subject returns in G with no change. Beethoven leads us to another bridge, similar as the first one. The strettos are in D7 but are then softened with F#d scales and a C chromatic scale. Beethoven tricks us with another false reprise in F, resolving it with a D7-Am7 deceptive plagal cadence, if such a thing even exists. He transitions to the key of G with small dotted notes falling from C, the subdominant of G, to G, the tonic. The alto rises from G to C, falling to C; the harmony returns us to G through the secondary dominant A7-G-D7-G, even sneaking in an in-between harmony.

The third subordinate subject uses triplets in the keys of G or D7, but the peak note is always D, the dominant. The thematic material itself is in the base, built on leap up a 6th and a leap down an octave. All the cells combined creates a broad melodic form, of G to D, a melodic line we saw elsewhere in this movement. Beethoven concludes the subordinate subject with a crescendo of rising parallel thirds between treble and base, building into a fortissimo of G7 and C harmonies, the melodic peak always in G. Then the melody breaks back into triplets, but with G notes on top, while the base uses the secondary dominant and in-between harmony to progress back to G through C-A7-G-D7.

Beethoven repeats the third subordinate subject, and follows it with a coda. The main subject makes a reprise, albeit with some octaves thrown in, then breaks down into the C#-D leading notes before falling down from C, the subdominant, to G, the tonic. The coda repeats all its musical cells an octave higher, a motif Beethoven used throughout the entire sonata.

Beethoven’s next sonata, the Sonata in E (Op. 14), is a breath of fresh air following the dark and weighty Pathetique Sonata (In Cm, Op. 13), and it comes with a sibling; the Sonata in G (Op. 14). Both sonatas are lyrical and mild, but sophisticated as ever – Beethoven always has tricks up his sleeve – and are structured as the Pathetique, where a weighty first movement in sonata form is balanced by two other movements. The Sonata in E resembles a string quartet with its frequent four-part writing, counterpoint, and imitations, most easily found in the first movement but also present in the later movements.

AllegroFollowing the idea of a string quartet, Beethoven opens with a main subject in E, with violin parts sustaining long melodic notes high on the treble while the viola and cello parts play a knocking rhythmic motif. The melody rises in gentle open intervals of 4ths, 5ths, 6ths; in essence rising from dominant to tonic to dominant to tonic again. The little flurry at the end with the high tonic note is a frequent trope in violin solos. Yes, the phrase ends on E, the tonic, but it’s unresolved; a question waiting an answer. And Beethoven chooses to answer with a motif played in violin I, violin II, viola, and cello parts; this way he brings the melody back down to earth. In essence, the dominant note, B, leaps down an octave four times.

Now Beethoven is ready to bring all string quartet parts at once, and he once more makes the dominant note the crux of the music, repeating the same small phrases but in different registers, using them to travel from one B note to another to another. The harmony is basic V-I, not too special, but he does use a chromatic rising and falling line for the viola and cello parts in the latter parts of the first subject. It transforms the usual harmonies leading back to E; D#d7 becomes augmented to D#m and B7a becomes diminished to B7.

So how does Beethoven get us to the subordinate subject in B? His solution is to use a variation of the first four bars to carry us from E to Bm. The melody rises up the B scale (or E scale in Lydian mode, take your pick) to the new tonic note while the harmony plays F# but delays resolving it to Bm; instead progressing chromatically F#-E-Am-A#d-Bm. But Beethoven avoids the usual V7-I cadences, opting for F#-Bd instead, while his melody trades between B and Dh notes until finally touching F#, dominant of B. Again, Beethoven highlights the dominant note.

The subordinate subject in B acts as a subject for imitation and counterpoint, especially the descending pickup notes used to get your attention (as pickup notes starting a subject are common to most contrapuntal subjects). Beethoven uses the four voices in chords to spell out three harmonic progressions: D#s4-F#7, F#7-B, B#hd7-C#m-A#d7-B, which avoid a typical V7-I with a secondary dominant (D#s4) and a deceptive cadence (B#hd7-C#m). Beethoven uses an extra sentence as a bridge to take us to the closing theme so as to not make the transition awkward; the harmony is now pretty typical V7-I but the melody itself builds from an F#7 chord.

The closing subject mutates Em (subdominant) from minor to major many times; a technique also used by composers such as Schubert, and as such the melodic line changes from a rising half step (F#-Gh) to a rising whole step (F#-G#). Beethoven then builds a bridge to smoothly return to his main subject, which makes sense in this gentle sonata. Beethoven uses a B scale melody to rise to a climax; a deceptive cadence in C#m, before resolving us back to F#7-B with a leading tone melody. Beethoven then leads us back to the main subject with a bridge using IV-I where the cello part now takes the opening motif.

The development is smooth and straightforward, built on two cores, the second core also acting as a retransition. The precore, yet another version of the opening four bars, takes the melodic line up the E scale, from E as tonic to E as mediant, but the harmonies, the context the melody is in, drastically changes; Beethoven wanders into F7a (Neapolitan), then into diminished chords finally resolving G#d7-Am. Beethoven brings in new material of octaves (based in part from the opening motif and the movement’s obsession with dominant note octaves), and where Beethoven makes a poignant modulation from Am to C. He moves from Am to Dm7, which seems odd until it mutates to D7, becoming a secondary dominant; we now see a D7-G7-C progression as Beethoven modulates to C (relative major of Am). The subject develops; the melody rises to a high F note and cadences to C to mark this transition. The subject develops again; the melody starts in Em but shifts gears to A#d7 to leap up an E note octave in a lamenting call before resolving to B.

The second core, also the retransition, exchanges the opening motif in the base and treble, the new home key now Em. Beethoven slowly winds down with a V-i progression, with some A#d7-B and A-Em (a major subdominant), knocking with B notes the whole time, using this constant dominant to return us to E. The main subject returns in a loud and excited variation, then returns to normal. Now Beethoven uses a different transition to show growth and change in the music, now in C, which surprises us as the melody seems to lead to at Em. This new transition develops the knocking eight notes into a fast rising scale while the opening motif is exchanged between treble and base. Then Beethoven modulates to the subtonic through Chd7-B, using an A# leading note in the cello part to guide us to B. The remaining bars are similar to their exposition counterparts, albeit with a A#d7-B progression.

The subordinate subject remains the same, just in keys a 4th lower. The closing subject has a similar exchange as in the exposition with the melodic line rising a half step one moment (B-C) a rising whole step (B-C#) another, but the harmonies are slightly different; D# mutating between D#d7 and D#hd7. We enter the coda, where the opening motif returns low in the base, the knocking eight notes now in the middle, creating the warm, rich feeling of strings in the lower registers. Beethoven develops the motif with a downward phrase to resolve it, the harmonies and base shift between dissonant progressions, F7-E and F#d7-E (exchanging between Neapolitan and supertonic). The motif moves to the treble, now developing by rising to a high E; the movement makes a quiet return to the tonic.

AllegrettoThe second movement is a minuet in Em and is based on a dotted swinging rhythm, leaps up a 3rd, and half steps, giving many accidentals. We see four-part writing throughout the movement, once more suggesting a string quartet. The subject builds around a broken Em chord, the melodic line rising to B (dominant) before resolving. Beethoven uses atypical harmonies, moving to C (submediant) very early, then using leading tones to progress A#hd7-Am and D#d-Em. The first sentence ends in B, hanging, the second, now an octave higher, resolves to Em. We enter a major section in C, the melodic line built on the 3rd (E to G) and repeating G (dominant). Andras Schiff mistakes the progressions here as Plagal cadences (IV-I) but Beethoven always uses D as the base note, making his harmonies Dm7-G (ii7-V). Beethoven then moves the melody through E to F#, the harmonies, A#d-B, hanging on the dominant.

Beethoven returns to his Em subject but develops it, highlighting Dm with drawn out block chords and frequenting on the eight note turn, progressing G#d-Am. He then uses a codetta to draw us to quiet, wistful finish in the high register, constantly using D#d7-E. The music now becomes very contrapuntal; the cello stubbornly on E (tonic), the violin I in leading notes D#-E, the violin II and viola in eight note turns in opposite directions.

The minore part of the minuet finished, we enter the maggiore part in C. Beethoven once again builds his material on the 3rd (E and G), but his melody is looser, moving around broken chords, and connects to the higher octave with a rising broken chord and chromatic notes. Now the melody is in sustained three quarter notes and drops by small intervals of a 4th and 3rd, whatever puts him in the tonic and dominant. The cello part is interesting as it makes a long chromatic descent. The violin II does a similar thing but in smaller phrases. The maggiore subjects resolves to the dominant through Dm7-G, once more the “Plagal” cadence.

Now Beethoven develops his subject in A, with extra counterpoint in opposite motion in the viola part; now the melodic line builds on the G and Fh notes, using what the downward whole step “naturally” suggests to move down a C scale. As surely as Beethoven developed the falling whole step, he develops the chromatic rising cell, taking it up high two octaves, then preparing us for the return to the minuet in Em; the melody falling from E (tonic of Em) to B (dominant of Em), the base subtly shifting like quicksand C-Em-B. The coda of the entire movement proceeds as the second half of the development, but softer, sweeter, sadder.

Allegro commodoThe third movement is a Rondo in E, exuberant and simpler, lacking most of the four-part string quartet writing from the first two movements. We enter the main subject, melody in octaves leaping up a dominant upbeat to E (tonic), climbing up the scale and settling on A (subdominant). The base comes in triplets, in essence broken 6ths, descending the E scale to a dominant pedal, the harmony moving from E to B7. So now the main subject is suspended in the dominant, how do we resolve it? Beethoven introduces a rapid descending scale and four-part counterpoint so the melody falls from A (subdominant) to G# (median), then resolves to E (tonic). Beethoven repeats his opening line again but this time develops his material to transition to B (dominant). He does so by exchanging the descending scale cell in different registers in imitation and expanding it so it so it drops low to D# (leading tone) and high to G (mediant). This lets melody build up to a climax trill A# (leading tone to B) and having it fall to B.

The subordinate subject is very brief, based on the same large open leaps at the climax of the transition, but this time the music is calm even though almost the exact same notes are being played. In a way the subordinate subject is a bit disappointing. The subject sounds like it will begin a counterpoint but the violin II, viola, and cello just fill in the harmony; but at least that harmony progresses as C#m-F#9-B, focusing on C#m (relative minor of E). A small variation follows, and the melody sits on B (dominant of E) as the harmonies modulate back to E through B-F#7s4-B#7, the sustained 4th at F# and 7th note in B signaling a descent back to E.

The main subject returns but repeats differently, leading us to a second subordinate subject that acts as a development section by leaving E to go to G (mediant). The melodic line now reaches higher to touch on Ch (submediant of E), and the harmony follows suite from Am-Gs4. Beethoven expands on his rapidly falling cell, repeating it, letting it drop to lower and lower registers, going G-D-G so we hit the development. Beethoven composes this paragraph to be pretty straightforward. The triplets take the front in the treble, the melodic arc rising and falling through broken chords, the base in octaves; no subject is borrowed from previous material except maybe a fragmented baseline early on, which makes sense as Beethoven quickly moves through many different chords. Regarding harmonic progressions, the development slowly leads us from G back to E, moving from D-G to E7-Am to C#hd7-F#m7-Bm to Dm7-G to B7-Em to B7-C to G#d7-Am to F#hd7-A#hd7-B7. The retransition is really simple; a E-B progression, the triplets rising up a chromatic scale to a high B, hanging on the dominant.

The main subject and transition return, almost the same as before, but modulating to A (subdominant) rather than E as usual. Beethoven takes the harmonies to an interesting route by modulating to F (submediant) through Bb (Neapolitan) with A-Bb-F-Ehd9-F. Now Beethoven takes the melody to D# (leading tone of E) so as to return the harmony to B (dominant), which he does through F7a-D#d7-B7; he moves the harmonies down by 3rds. Beethoven synchopates the main theme into a variation but he brings imitation back as the rising melody that distinguished the main subject now assumes a base role with a descending countersubject on top. Then the main subject (still in the base) becomes a variation moving from C to F# (dominant of B); the harmony starts in D#d7 but moves to B7 instead of E, delaying the leading tone. We resolve into a coda in E with a cell of chromatic notes. The rapid falling scales return, finishing the piece in a sentence similar to the transition. The last harmonies are A#d-B-E.

The Pathetique sonata (in Cm, Op. 13) is arguably Beethoven’s first great sonata; at least it was the first one to earn itself a nickname, one that Beethoven liked for a change. The sonata is a milestone for Beethoven, where the composer achieves a high sense of drama never done before in his career, taking his skills to the next level. He was only 27 years old at the time.

The sonata itself comes in a structure prominent in Beethoven’s later great sonatas; it is composed in three movements, with a great first movement in the full scope of sonata form balanced by the second and third movement combined; in the same structural approach in the Waldstein (in C, Op. 53) and the Appassionata (in Fm, Op. 57). The Pathetique is in a minor key, so it follows a structure where a serene and deeply felt middle movement stands between two emotional abysses. Later sonatas that follow this pattern are the Moonlight (in C#m, Op. 27), the Tempest (in Dm, Op. 31), and the Appassionata (in Fm, Op. 57).

Grave – Allegro di molto e con brio

The first movement is of truly epic proportions, boasting a grand and tragic slow introduction followed by a dark and agitated sonata form, with the grand, tragic motif recurring at the development and coda sections. The introduction motif exists to add extra weight to the sonata form and to vastly increase the first movement’s emotional breadth and depth. While the main subject in the sonata form proper is truly pathetic, the sonata would be hardly better than the early Fm sonata (Op. 2) without the extra motif. Beethoven always looked forward, to climb higher and higher, and so he considered it a failure if he merely repeated himself.

The Grave motif has a melodic arc based on forcefully rising up two steps, then sighing down one step; it holds a dotted rhythm that characterized French Baroque music by giving it powerful feeling and royal grandness, most effectively used by Jean-Baptiste Lully; it harmonically moves to a diminished seventh chord and hangs on it before resolving to a new key. Regarding melodic line, Beethoven peaks twice, with the melody at a high subdominant note relative to the key he resolves to; the first note being Ab with Beethoven resolving to Eb and the second note being F with Beethoven resolving to Cm.

Beethoven spends the first few bars slowly rising up the Cm scale, his harmonies Cm and Bd7, later adding some F#d7 to lead to G, the dominant. – The melodic note is first the tonic, then subdominant, then tonic of Cm, pointing that Beethoven makes much use of the subdominant key in this movement, which is Fm, significant since Fm was considered to be the darkest key in Beethoven’s time – Beethoven slowly climbs his way up to the Ab note (with a small leap from F to Ab), meanwhile his harmonies lead F#d7-G before using keys close to Cm to reach Bb7, preparing us for Eb. (Notice that Beethoven briefly plays C instead of Cm, adding a more colorful touch to the passage.)

Now in Eb, Beethoven develops his Grave motif further by contrasting a piano, tender, pleading phrase with a fortissimo, forceful denial. – Beethoven uses this idea of pleading and denial in other words, such as the second movement of his piano concerto in G (Op. 58) – Beethoven slowly works his way up the Eb scale (but never “perfectly” as he almost always includes small leaps to make the melodic arc more jagged) all the way to the high F note, frequently using leading tones such as C# and Eh. However, he does take the melody in interesting turns by using interesting harmonies; he moves to D of all chords, mutates it to Dd, and moves to Fd.

Once Beethoven reaches that high F note, he modulates Gm7-Ab, meaning he briefly denies us the Cm we expect to hold us hanging a little while longer and to play the softest and most tender phrase of the introduction. The last bar comes in the standard harmonies of Cm, Bd7, and G7, and shrinks the note values further to play a long descending chromatic scale. And Beethoven hangs us on a diminished chord (Bd7) while holding us on a sudden high note, which is a typical technique for Beethoven at this point.

The sonata form is monothematic; it makes use of the main subject and its variations throughout the entire movement; as a main subject, subordinate subject, closing subject, development, and coda. Haydn, the great composer and Beethoven’s teacher, also created monothematic sonatas where the same material appeared as main and subordinate subjects. The main subject itself is a rising Cm scale but uses Eh frequently, which makes the harmonies to often be Ed leading to Fm. Beethoven emphasizes Fm, the darkest key, and the leading tone gives a sharp edge that highlights the wrathful and tragic subject, which you wouldn’t get if the rising Cm scale had no accidentals. All this established the main subject, now Beethoven must add to it in order to resolve it; he does this by using half notes that move down the Cm scale, an inversion of the main subject before. Beethoven resolves through F#d7-G-Cm.

For the transition, Beethoven uses as material the syncopated sustained notes held in G, the dominant of Cm, then follows it with downward eight note arpeggios where Beethoven again uses F#d to lead to G. But all this is a small episode in Cm the whole time, now Beethoven modulates for real. He brings back the main subject so he can break it up into smaller leader notes, and he pairs it with a huge contrast; low, thundering whole notes resolving down a step. This way he modulates from F#d-G to Gd-Ab to Ad-Bb, then he breaks down the whole notes so he can use a cell to descend by the octave; he uses Ad-Bb over and over, so by highlighting Bb he prepares us for Ebm.

The subordinate subject uses material from the main subject but part of it is broken off and placed in the base. Beethoven uses repeated notes in the middle register to give harmonic context with his left hand while he jumps between low and high registers with his right, and trails this striking motif with a falling melody in the treble, again an inversion. Beethoven’s new key is Ebm, which subverts our expectations of Eb or Ab, and he points it out more by using Gb notes. He modulates us to Db during this time, from Bbd7-Ebm to Ab7-Db and Ab7a-Db. Time to raise the pressure; Beethoven uses large leaps and trails off with the descending melody more to build our anticipation as he leads us to the closing section; the harmonies change from Db to Ebm7 to Bb7, making us expect Eb major.

And for the closing section in Eb, Beethoven makes use of a long rising Eb scale but with chromatic notes thrown in; Eh-Ah-Dh, thus linking the harmony Eb to the harmony C7, the major submediant. Beethoven builds us up slowly, with sixteenth note Alberti base in opposite motion, taking the melody higher while the base goes downward, taking us to a high Eb note before falling quickly downward, resolving through Eb-Eba-Ab-Bb7-Eb. Beethoven brings us a new phrase, using a half note to underline that high Eb and descending downward in sixteenth notes. It also holds examples of where Beethoven has the implied harmonies of the two hands not agree with each other. The left hand fleshes uses repeated notes to flesh out the harmonies Cm-Fm7-Bb while the right hand fleshes out diminished sevenths of the left hand harmonies;

And finally, Beethoven plays the main subject once more, untampered with except in the key of Eb, and brings back whole notes that keep leaping by octave from the Eb6 to the Eb5 notes. He cycles through keys close to Eb, then he falls to a D note and makes the leap by two octaves, and shifts the harmonies to D7-G7 to prepare us for Cm.

Now here is where performance gets tricky. Most print editions of the Pathetique direct us to repeat the Allegro sonata form, but Andras Schiff makes a compelling argument of why we should go all the way back to the Grave introduction; it further cements in our mind the bold and tragic material that gives so much weight to the first movement.

Beethoven reprises the Grave introduction before going to the development proper. He begins in Cm again but his high note is G, the dominant, not the tonic note of C like last time. Beethoven climbs his way slowly to a high Eh note, the median, before slowly moving down to a middle Eh, making much use of the F#d7-Gm harmonies, before shifting to D#d-Em.

Beethoven lands on Em for his development, the mediant of Cm, and for his first core he uses the subordinate subject in treble and base lines, meanwhile accompanying it with tremolos or repeated quarter notes. The material itself is, the subordinate subject, a more jagged version of the main subject made entirely of leading notes, the rising scale replaced by leaps from leading cell to the next. Thus Beethoven plays the material in the treble, taking us from Em to D to Bbm, then shifts the material to the base, taking us from Bbm to Gb to Bd, then leads us from F#d7-G.

Thus begins the second core, where Beethoven drums away tremolo notes at the base in G, the dominant of Cm, there is high tension here as the 18 th century audience would expect that G base to leap to C to resolve the tension through a V-i progression. But Beethoven has no interest in letting us off the hook easily; he uses arpeggios in the tenor range to cycle through C#m-Dd-Ab-G, keeping an Ab (the submediant of Cm) as the top note. He does suddenly shift to the soprano range to play a variation of the main subject, using C#d-Dm, then makes use of something new; whole notes and trills, to bring us to Cm-G. Once Beethoven has brought us to G7, the dominant, he uses eight note arpeggios to throw us all the way down from a high F, the subdominant he makes so much use of in this movement, to a baseline C.

Now in the recapitulation, Beethoven still develops his main subject even after just reintroducing it; he develops the descending half notes to function as a new transition to trail us to the subordinate subject, modulating from Db to Bb7-Ebm to C-Fm. Beethoven puts the subordinate subject in Fm, which deviates from the usual as most listeners expect the harmony of C. But Beethoven does modulate to Cm, but even still he uses harmonies such as F9, Bb, and Ab, as if he was in Eb the whole time. The closing section is the same as before, only transposed to Cm, but at the end, when Beethoven thunders with his whole notes and two octave leap, he crashes us to F#d7, which appears like he is leading us to the G, the dominant.

He returns to the Grave introduction but without the large thick chords; the point is to create a poignant and sad feeling and keep us in suspense, which works very well as Beethoven built so much expectation beforehand. Beethoven, perhaps more than any other composer, knew the value of silence. Silence is as important to music as zero is important in math. He leads us from F#d7-Gm to Bd7-Cm to Ed7-Fm, before softly floating down the Cm scale, using Cm-G7. Beethoven uses the main subject a final time to bring the movement with a fortissimo close, using F#d7-Cm-G7-Cm, delaying the F#d7-G7 progression a bit with an in-between harmony of Cm.

Adagio cantabile

The second movement is romantic and deeply felt, and its pensive nature contrasts the agitated and violent first movement. It is rondo form where the main subject appears three times and is contrasted by two subordinate subjects and a coda. So what about the main subject itself? The melody is based more or less on the Ab triad while also making use of rising chords, leaps downward, and resolving by a downwards step. The harmony usually sticks to Ab and other nearby harmonies, but does have a Ghd7-Ab and a Ahd7-Bbm progression. The etxture is sophisticated, with a songlike soprano melody above and a similar base below, both using quarter notes and first species counterpoint, while the alto and tenor roles come in sixteenth notes to flesh out the harmonies.

Now Beethoven arrives to a brief subordinate subject in Cm, the texture simplified to only two voices, the melody built around the cell of a held quarter note and descending sixteenth notes taken from the main subject. The peak note is always Ab, the submediant of Cm, until it becomes G when Beethoven suddenly moves to Eb. The retransition shifts the melody, now a chromatic descent and later a chromatic turn, to the tenor part, the repeated eight notes give the very thick harmony of Bb9s4 before resolving to Eb9 so Beethoven may return to Ab.

Beethoven replays the main subject but only once but avoid repeating himself too much. Now he mutates to Abm to play a second subordinate subject, and breaks it into two parts; an eight-note descent by scale followed by a leap or a step in the treble, and a chromatic descent in triplets in the base, while the alto is made of repeated notes to flesh out a harmony. Beethoven lingers around in Abm and Eb for the first sentence, then makes a sudden leap to the F# note, the dominant of the relevant key, to a passionate outburst in B7, the median of Abm. The triplet descent swaps to the soprano role as the harmonies modulate to E through the progression B7-E-F#7-E (in between harmony)-B7-E.

Beethoven begins his second sentence in E and B7 but rather than taking his material to any special places he slowly modulates back to Ab; he uses rising broken chord triplets way down in the base to do so, going through Dd7 (leading tone of E) to Bbhd7 (submediant of D) then to Eb7 (subdominant of Bhd7 and dominant of Ab). Beethoven returns to the main subject, playing it in full, and slightly develops it further by using triplets in the alto and tenor parts.

The coda makes use of descending triplets in the melody, with the melody starting high on an F note (submediant of Ab), then falling to an Eb note and later an Ab note. The whole movement can be said to be a gradual development where sixteenth notes gradually become triplets as the movement progresses. Either way, Beethoven gently lets us down with a turning and descending phrase. He uses Ab and Eb7 as harmonies the whole time to let us know the piece is over.

Allegro

The third movement is a rondo in Cm and, together with the second movement, balances out the massive sonata form first movement. While this last movement is not as grand and tragic as the first movement it is still a heavyweight piece of music in its own right, and should be respected as such. Most listeners would agree that this rondo satisfies us as an ending to the entire sonata. Beethoven himself may have disagreed, as he would go on to try different ways of putting the most weight on the end of a sonata, not the beginning. His later third movements, such as those of the Waldstein and Appassionata sonatas, do have a higher drama and urgency than the first movements and create the climax of the entire sonata, not just one movement. Beethoven would later blow even that out of the water with the fugue finale of the Hammerklavier sonata (in Bb, Op. 106), and repeated that success with the choral finale of the 9 th symphony (in Dm, Op. 125) and the Große Fugue finale of his massive string quartet in Bb (Op. 130).

But we have not arrived to such heights yet.

But we have not arrived to such heights yet. The main subject begins with a dotted swinging motion in Cm, peaks with G and Ab (dominant and submediant) half and three quarter notes, and swings back down to Cm. Beethoven draws a tail to our subject, where the melody peaks to the Bb and C notes (subtonic and tonic) before decisively ending with G-Cm chords. The harmonies never leave the usual Cm nexus except for a brief moment in C, between Ab and Fm.

The transition uses loud whole note chords to suspend us before resolving to the “proper” harmony, whereby rising and falling arpeggios in piano take over. In this matter Beethoven easily takes us to the subordinate subject through C7-Fm and Bb7-Eb. Again, Beethoven is fond of playing the dominant or leading chord of the new home key first, then resolving to it, and even modulates to the dominant or leading chord through keys relevant to them, not the new home key.

Beethoven uses the subordinate subject to raise the blood pressure; he uses eight notes in both hands; arpeggios in the left hand, a brisk melody in the right, all in Eb. Beethoven sprints around in Eb before climbing up with half notes to Bb (dominant) and Eb (tonic) so he can slip into new material; two phrases built on triplets imitating one another in the soprano and alto parts. Beethoven builds his first phrase, and its triplets, on the high Bb note, dominant of Eb, and peaks his dramatic descent with the highest note in F, the supertonic. In the next phrase, Beethoven centers on a high Ab note, subdominant of Eb, and Db, the subtonic. Never one to leave well enough alone, Beethoven squeezes in one more dramatic descent, the peak note being C, the submediant of Eb. The harmonies throughout the entire subordinate subject are rather plain, mostly Eb and Bb7, with only a Cb7a, an Ad-Bb, and a Cm7 chord throughout.

Beethoven begins the closing subject with a theme made of repeated notes and slow turns, the key notes are Bb (dominant) and F (dominant of dominant), and includes a chromatic descending base with a Cb note, which adds dissonance to an F harmony. This small episode acts as a brief respite and a bridge to the real closing subject, one built on the imitation of eight note triplets among soprano and alto, based on Eb and Ab notes. Using this standard I-IV-I progression, Beethoven uses it to build to a climax, at first using the triplets in a melody in a full bar to peak at a G note (mediant), then jumps up a broken Dd chord (leading tone of Eb) to reach high up to F (subdominant of C), playing the harmony of G7 in the process. This way Beethoven modulates through Eb-Abs4-Dd-G7-Cm.

Beethoven briefly returns to the main subject, then immediately jumps to a second subordinate subject in Ab; it functions like a canon with a subject of half notes that leap up by 4ths and down by 5ths. The harmonies have a marked contrast to previous subjects because Ab is by no means emphasized, drifting through almost every key closely related to Ab while Ab itself only appears once in the beginning. Beethoven repeats the subject many times, trading it among alto, base, tenor, and soprano, each new version a variation, and he tails it off by using whole notes to lead the base through F-F#-G, while the treble climbs down from a high C (median of Ab) to a low G (dominant of Cm). Now in the retransition, where the triplets are crushed into sixteenth notes, Beethoven hammers G in the melody (dominant) over and over, slowly jumping into higher Gs by octaves, then to Bh, then to D, then peaking at F (subdominant of Cm); in other words, up the G7 chord. The harmonies are just are straightforward; G-Cm-Bd, and so forth, and like the melody they function to prepare you for a return to Cm.

We now return to main subject a third time, which Beethoven cuts up after the first sentence to lead us to the subordinate subject in a different way. His transition his built on rising arpeggios figures that climb up the Gm7 chord to peak at F (subdominant as usual), and drop to G (dominant), while the harmonies are built on leading tones Bd-Cm, Ed-Fm, and F#d-G. The third subordinate subject is similar to the first one, transposed to G rather than Eb, where Beethoven peaks with a high F note (subdominant of Cm) and later when he uses triplets in imitation he holds on C notes (subdominant of G7) and G notes (dominant of C).

The closing subject begins in C, the mutation of Cm, which you would expect to be in the subordinate subject, but Beethoven develops it by leading his melodic line, through three fourth notes, up a Gm chord to an Ab note, the essential harmonies progressing through Cm-Gm-Dd-Eb-Dd7. The retransition is brief; Beethoven uses whole notes to make a chromatic fall from Ab (subediant of Cm) to Eb (median of Cm) while the harmonies progress G-Da-Bd-Cm.

Beethoven repeats his main subject a fourth time, and jumps to the coda, which is once more a long dramatic climb up a C chord of all things, before leaping to a G note (dominant) and repeating it to raise the pressure, then another leap to a high F note (subdominant of C), then rapidly falling to a Bb note (dominant of Eb). The harmony at this point is build around C7-Fm, where the subdominant Fm is key in a recapitulation and this coda functions as such, with some progressions to relative keys mixed in; F#d7-Bd-Cm, Dd-G, Db-Eb7. The base notes remain the roo

Beethoven holds us on Eb for a while to signal he is still not done yet, which you wouldn’t get if he went to Cm. So he delays Cm a little more with calm Ab versions of the swinging phrase from the main subject. A small leading melody from F#d7-Cm (in between note), then Beethoven plays a fortissimo finish from G7-Cm, the melody flying down from F (the usual subdominant) to C.

The sonata in D (Op. 10) is overshadowed by the “Pathetique” sonata (in Cm, Op. 13), but unjustly so. I could even describe this sonata in D as superior to the “Pathetique”, if not on the whole than at least in a number of ways. For instance, it tells a larger and more nuanced story than the “Pathetique” does; its movements explore more different nuanced moods and are less linear in form; while “Pathetique” is intense and dramatic but in stark colors of black and white, and its Sonata Form structure goes from point A to point B. While this sonata in D (Op. 10) does have a four movement structure typical of Beethoven’s earliest sonatas the movements come together in a more organic way. While Beethoven lumped contrasting moods together in his earlier sonatas he still, in essence, followed an outlined script of how he should structure his ideas, but here it is different. Now Beethoven is using the different movements of the piano sonata genre to tell a larger story, a pattern he develops for many different kinds of works later on: the “Pathetique” sonata, the “Eroica” symphony, his last string quartets, and his last piano sonatas.

So what story does this sonata in D tell? It is hard to say because the moods are so varied; the first movement has a light touch but is neither too lyrical or comic, the second movement takes us through a sudden mood whiplash to very grim and profound emotions, the third movement is lyrical and gentle, and the last movement is a little strange but lively. Beethoven usually thinks of death when he writes such dark and grim slow movements; either he thinks of the death of a person, where he evokes a funeral march, or death as a general part of the life cycle, such as in this sonata. Beethoven centers the whole sonata on his deathly slow movement, and he devotes following movements on how to respond to death, which he does in a way that evokes triumph, beauty, gratefulness, optimism, and other such emotions. Once Beethoven, we listeners, and the sonata itself go under such a death-rebirth cycle we are never the same again.

Presto

A Presto first movement is uncommon but not unheard of, but here we have it; either way it makes extreme use of the main subject as a motif throughout the entire movement, and goes through a winding path of different subjects and moods. It could have as many as three subordinate subjects depending on how you look at it, as if the sonata itself does not know what emotion to have so it simply tours different lands. It lacks an emotional center.

Either way, Beethoven builds his main subject with a turn and a rising D scale, suspending us at the melodic tip in A, the dominant. He establishes everything this movement will be made of in at most five seconds. The rest of the main subject is turning that opening turn into variations, one soft and lyrical, the next loud and bouncy, then Beethoven repeats the opening phrase (in variation) and suspends us in F#, the median and dominant of Bm…

…which is where Beethoven begins his transition. He inverts the opening turn and breaks it into its three opening notes, uses it again in eight notes, and further builds on it to make the entire transition in one very long melodic phrase. Perhaps this is where the humor is. He uses the turn and scale to create a long tine of arpeggios, and uses it to create two slow melodic climbs, building in intensity until he finally falls to A. The first climb peaks at D, our current home key, the second peaks at E, the dominant of A. Beethoven pairs his arpeggios with pieces of the rising scale and even spends some time swapping registers in them to make cells imitate each other. His method of changing Bm into A is by mutating F# (dominant of B) into F#m (subemdiant of A), then going F#m-E-A. The rest is basically A and E.

We reached the subordinate subject but Beethoven meanders around different variations of the falling scale and turn, as if he doesn’t know what mood to cast his music. He converts the falling scale bit into something more lively and witty by putting grace and eight notes in it, and rising scale material from the transition is further collapsed. Beethoven suddenly stops this idea and tries something different; a placid second subordinate subject, where he uses the opening turn in the base, then uses imitation with a rising scale motif, all the while changing harmonies many times: A-D-G7-C (moving down the circle of 5ths), then Dm-Bb (submediant of D), then returning to A with G#d-E-A.

Now, a third subordinate subject, where Beethoven tries something a little more spunky. He uses the turn to create a descending melodic line, then swaps the Alberti base to the treble, using it as a variation of a long climbing scale, meanwhile the tenor imitates the descending turns from before. A tranquil episode later, we arrive at a closing subject at last; created from a piece of the descending scale, and suspends us in A.

The development is one very long unbroken phrase, like the transition except even longer. He leads us from A right into Bb! He bases his precore on connecting many turns to make a descending scale (again), which moves right away into the core; he builds a phrase with a rising scale of quarter notes in the base, then answers it with a descending scale of eighth notes in the treble, and so he uses Bb and Gm. He then takes the base part longer, and answers that larger expectation with quarter notes that oscillate between the cello and flute parts, taking advantage of how his filler eighth notes are in the middle register. This way Beethoven takes us to Eb (with F# notes implying Gm, so you could interpret it as Gm in Aeolian Mode), to leap to A, which comes with Dm (minor subdominant) and Bb (neopolitan), an inventive alternate to the usual V and IV, then suspends the melody on G, the subdominant of D, while the overall harmony is A7.

Now in the recapitulation, Beethoven repeats the sonata’s opening phrase but then develops a little afterward with a rising chromatic base to take us from A to B, which is the dominant of Em, where our new transition begins. The transition and subordinate subjects are more or less the same but all in D, but Beethoven adds on to the closing subject to build a Coda: he develops it by cycling through D-Gm-Dd-Bb, then falls down a minor second to A-G-Em-A-D. He builds the Coda with a long falling scale and a long rising scale, guns blazing with a eight notes in both hands. His final cadences are novel, based on the G# note leading to the A note, which means he creates the unique harmonic progression Dd-D-G-D.

Largo

Now we arrive to the deathly slow movement, the lynchpin that anchors the entire sonata, gives context to the story. I could say that among composers before Beethoven only Mozart himself used slow movements to such effect, but Beethoven goes further in this sonata. I could say that this movement is the deepest and most melancholy piece of piano music ever created, only surpassed by the slow movement of the “Hammerklavier” sonata (in Bb, Op. 106). Beethoven often likes using dotted notes in serious slow movements to amp up the drama and grandeur, borrowing from French Baroque music, used to great effect by composers Lully, Rameau, and Gluck. Not so much in this movement; like the “Hammerklavier” slow movement ironically enough. Perhaps he did not want to remind people of a funeral march.

The second movement is in Dm, and is in Sonata Form, but the transitions are so long you can see the movement as large blocks of ABACoda; the form like a lengthy elegy, one eloquent statement to the next without too much connection between them. The main subject is based on the minor 2 nd interval and a leap; the melody goes from F# to stop a bit at B (mediant of the Gm harmony), then B to climax at F# (mediant of the Dm harmony), before falling to D. The harmony is designed to take us to Gm (subdominant) in the first phrase, then use less typical harmonies to keep tension; like going to C#d7 but changing to E7 rather than going to Dm so soon, then finally going G#d7-A-Dm.

We can say the large A block as two transitions; the first one modulates to C, the second to F. In the first transition, Beethoven hangs around A7 and Dms4, so he can take us to G7 and Cs4. Even in C, Beethoven surprises us with some D harmonies (major subdominant of Am, supertonic of C). This small hopeful major episode gives nuance to this dark movement, which Beethoven drives home with a C and D note played together, a soft dissonance. The second transition gets very angsty; Beethoven builds up tension with counterpoint with similar lines in the tenor and soprano parts and leaps to a high F# where the opening motif is transformed into heavy chords, and the harmony transitions from G#d7-Am. The repeated phrase amps the tension with octaves, thirty-second note imitation, and leading notes D#-E-F# to lead to three heavy chord motifs; the harmony moves from G#d7-C#d7-D#d7-G#d7-Am. Beethoven does not lead you from G#d7 to Am right away. Instead, he develops his material by treating G#d7 (yes, a diminished seventh), as a kind of home key and moves around it with diminished seventh dominants and subdominants.

Beethoven lingers in Am a bit before silently ending there. Then, he begins the subordinate subject by leaping to F. He convinced us this entire time that he was moving to A or Am but now he takes to a different place entirely. Granted, the relative major is what is usually expected, but Beethoven seemed to be preparing us for something different. Anyway, Beethoven takes the 6/8 rhythm of the main subject and turns it into a baseline and harmonic color, giving the melody an anchor while it floats freely above. Beethoven makes a point to peak his melody at the E note (leading tone of F), not quite making it up the octave, so the dejected melody can fall down an octave, moving chromatically downward to the D note. Beethoven also plays his F harmony alongside Dm, Am, and Gm instead of E and D, to once more make the point that this hope does not last.

A mournful phrase take over, treble triplets above, a basso continuous and alto coloring below, from Gm-A-A7-C#d7, where the retransition happens. The triplets fall far down the scale to slowly diminish tension, then suddenly leap out of nowhere to a sharp pang in Bb. You will see Beethoven use a similar tactic in his “Tempest” sonata (in Dm, Op. 31) where he interrupts a downward scale with a sudden leap to a sforzando, then hang us there for a short while before falling down again. Here, he says that grief comes in long numbing pains and sharp pangs.

We return to the main subject in Dm in a recapitulation of sorts. Beethoven uses extra thick voices in the alto and baritone registers, later swaps voices in the treble cleff, the whole point is to make the main subject stronger and more dramatic in its return. Beethoven skips a phrase and goes right to his first transition, where he modulates from Gm to Bb, and he does use C7 sometimes, major subdominant of Gm. This subverts our expectations since we usually expect the subdominant of a minor key to also be minor.

Passing the second transition, same as before but in Dm, we enter the Coda, where Beethoven ramps up the pressure by using ever smaller note values but, being resourceful as always, reprises the main subject in the base. With his baseline he slowly climbs up a chromatic scale from D (tonic) to A (dominant) but he uses harmonies that do not match the leading tones in the base. While an A note leads into a Bb note, Beethoven does not play Ad and Bb harmonies but instead mutates Ebd into Eb, and so forth.

Beethoven returns with the same descending triplets to slowly guide us to base clef to make his final grievous statements, where he sharply contrasts his ferocious arpeggios from before with stillness. Andras Schiff compared the Coda to winter, where everything is frozen, dead, still. Beethoven leads C# into D in the melody many times but his harmonies are Ed7-Dm. Using the C# as a dissonance grinds the pain in more.

Allegro

The third movement in D in Minuet Form can be compared to new shoots growing in spring; overall the movement is easygoing. Beethoven builds his melody loosely from the turn motif from way back in the first movement and uses it to go in a placid downward motion; first A (dominant) to F# (while playing D), then B (while playing Em) to D, pretty standard. The three voices underscore the melody with simple first species counterpoint, again to convey an easy, relaxed feeling. You can breath.

Beethoven brings up a new little motif to imitate among different registers, cycling around the relative keys F#m-B-E-A (down the circle of 5ths), then reprises his subject but develops it: he extends the two phrases by having the motif climb upward to build tension before letting fall in a longer arc, he gives greater counterpoint to the other voices, especially the alto voice, and extends the harmonies as far as B.

For the Trio in G, Beethoven uses leaps in the base and treble, not unlike in the first movement, and uses the turning motif in the minuet. The harmonies are very straightforward here; close keys to G, climaxing in A7 to modulate us to D7. (He chooses D7 over D so he can easily move us back to G.) Both subject (in the base) and triplets (in the tenor) rise higher, with the triplets hitting the soprano line at the peak. Both subject and triplets go in a similar pattern when the phrase resolves but the triplets don’t go as high up when the Trio ends, with Beethoven hanging us in A7, dominant of D.

Allegro

The fourth movement in D in Rondo Form functions as a book end to the sonata; like the first movement it meanders through different keys and moods but the moods it does reach convey a more confidant and assured feeling. The piece makes its Rondo Form clear by ending each Part in an unresolved fermata; similar to the Rondo of Beethoven’s very first piano sonata, the “Kurfursten” sonata in Eb. Beethoven has come a long way since then, as have we.

We begin Part A: the subject at the heart of the movement is a melody where a leading tone is followed by a rising 3 rd , the base descending the broken G chord in opposite direction. The harmony is D-G, with the leading F# note making G the core harmony, not D. Beethoven does use the rising third cell to build an ascending broken G (subdominant) chord melody to complete his first phrase in A7. – Notice how Beethoven turns G7s4 into G#7, but mixes a base B# note with a treble G note; all before resolving to A7. – The second phrase, that resolves the A7 tension, develops the motif, having it ascend a broken Bm chord (submediant).

Beethoven builds his transition on a rising scale and downward leap, countering with Alberti base, then has both parts swap hands in imitation, while Beethoven constructs his Alberti base in a way to imply keys such as Em, Bm, and C#d7 to not have a stale I-V-I progression, and overshoots to E7, pretty typical stuff. The subordinate subject is made of the second and third beat of the subject, transformed into chords with a knocking rhythm; melody turns into rhythm, while Beethoven builds tension with a rising chromatic scale, first peaking at the E note (E7 harmony, dominant of A), then peaking at the E note again (but with the A harmony, the tonic). He moves downward to the G note (with the A7 harmony) where he suspends us, readying us to return to D.

Now Part B: Beethoven repeats the main subject, but he suddenly leads from A7 to a bridge in Bb to take us to a new subordinate subject; where the treble and base parts of the motif swap hands and call and answer the other. He also used this A7-B tactic in the first movement. The Bb subordinate subject builds on the rising 3rd part of the motif: to invert it and dip down a broken Bb chord before rising a broken Ad chord, before doing it again in Eb and Dd. Beethoven ramps up with sixteenth notes in Eb, climbing up, going somewhere, but suspends us in Ed (Neapolitan of Eb).

And this way he leads to a false reprise of the subject in F. Beethoven takes us through a broken Gb chord (Neopolitan of F), then peaks his melody in G (Neopolitan of Gb), then descends down a chromatic scale, to further emphasize a chromatic feel to this episode, and suspends us in A7. It’s an interesting way to move to distant keys and return to D.

To Part C: He repeats the subject as before but the transition leads to a very different place than A; instead it features a more chromatic melody and progresses D-F#d7(diminished mediant)-F# (mutated into a major dominant)-Bm. Our third subordinate subject is quiet and mysterious; repeating woodwinds on top, the base strings taking up the motif, not sticking to Bm but floating around distant harmonies as the woodwinds slowly rise up a chromatic scale: F#-Gd7-Ebm-Ed7-G#d7. Beethoven raises tension: the volume goes into crescendo, the treble shortens into sixteenth notes, the baseline motif becomes more frequent, the harmonies G#d7-A, and once more crashes down to an A harmony suspension. This intense phrase acts as a retransition taking us back to a recapitulation of sorts.

To Part D: Beethoven develops the subject by putting sixteenth note counterpoint in the base, then drops to a Coda in the lower register. The Coda in D is complicated, with a phrase leading to a false ending, a remote key episode, and a final phrase. Beethoven builds the melodic line on the motif, both upright and inverted forms, and in this way he culminates at a high D note, the harmony being A7s4, to point out that the highest note being on a tonic note does not make it the end of a movement. Beethoven moves to Gm into an episode of synchopated chords, the melody descends a chromatic scale, into a soft finish; the base picks up the motif with a I-IV harmony, the treble gently goes up and down and up and down the chromatic scale and later arpeggios of D and A7, finally falling to D. It’s a silent and unassuming end to a great sonata but Beethoven knew silence to be as worthy as any note.

Beethoven left his usual pattern once more when he composed his piano sonata in F (Op. 10); it is in three movements only and lacks a slow movement, usually the heart of the sonata and the crux that divides the large first movement from the lighter third and fourth movements. In later sonatas, Beethoven will fully exploit using the middle movement as a crux that contrasts and balances out other movements in emotion and form. Striking examples include the sonata in D (Op. 10), the sonata in Cm (Op. 13) (Pathetique), the sonata in Dm (Op. 31) (The Tempest).

Beethoven takes a slightly different approach in the sonata in C (Op. 53) (Waldstein), the sonata in Fm (Op. 57) (Appassionata), and the sonata in Eb (Op. 81) (Les Adieux); their middle movements blend into the final movements, acting as part of the counterweight to the weighty first movements as well as the dramatic crux of the whole piece. But these sonatas are for another time.

However, Beethoven uses other forms as central cruxes in his sonatas, such as minuets, which he does use in this sonata in F (Op. 10). Here the minuet acts a melancholic episode to contrast the bright and witty first and third movements. A more famous example is the sonata in C#m (Op. 27) (Moonlight) where the sweet minuet contrasts the dark and gloomy first and third movements. Franz Liszt compared it to a flower between an abyss on one side and an abyss on the other.

AllegroThe first movement is in Sonata Form in F, mostly lyrical and funny but sometimes suffers from small bouts of angst. So how does Beethoven go about building such a movement? He establishes his main subject using two thick calls made of chords followed by a thin turn. Then he follows up this idea with a long and complex melodic arc, full of syncopated and dotted notes but in essence climbs up and down the F scale through turns, peaking at the high D6 note of the Bb (subdominant) harmony before falling back to F (tonic). Beethoven uses chords, an idea borrowed from the two calls before, to anchor the melody with a solid rhythm and flesh out the harmonies, and they move mostly parallel to the melody.

Beethoven makes a striking move by developing his main subject a little before going to the transition; he uses two chord calls to carry us to D#d, then uses loud triplets (borrowed from the thin turns before) to carry us to E, which D#d leads to. E is a nice distant harmony but is the median of C (dominant) and submediant of G (V/dom). Everything connects to everything else like a spider’s web in Beethoven’s world.

Beethoven constructs the transition melody as a simplified version of the main subject and in octaves, which heightens the emotion. He states a question and answer to establish us in this area, then develops it to lead us to the subordinate subject. He does this by using two phrases in the top voice over and over again to raise the tension in the music. He leads F# to G, then descends C to G; it’s all vii/G and IV/G, the usual tactic to “overshoot” at the V/dom before going to the dominant. Again Beethoven underscores his melody, with arpeggios in this case. At first it’s mostly C and G, with some Em and Dm7 to keep things interesting, then uses Gs4 and D7 over and over when he really wants to transition.

So far Beethoven created a lyrical tone to his music, now he brings humor into the work. The subordinate subject is a simple arpeggio in Bd7 resolving to C, a descending melodic arc to contrast the main subject’s rising melodic arc, and ending in a few block chords similar to calling chords at movement’s beginning. Then Beethoven jerks sharply into an angsty variation in Cm, the alto or viola voice continuing the subject while the soprano or violins are in wide triplets. The block chords seem to lead to Cm but ends in Ab instead! Here we see Beethoven’s humor; upon seeing his “mistake” he “corrects” himself with a meek chord in F#d. Beethoven designed his subordinate subject to be simple so he could have this kind of fun as complex melodies don’t have that much potential. I should know as I myself dug deep into simple music to find treasure hidden within.

Beethoven builds a bridge to the closing section by using more comedic phrases, a variation of the main subject; broken up into choppy woodwind parts that peaks on the G (dominant) harmony, then returns to the tonic in triplets. The joke is how the left and right hands cannot play together and it conjures the image of a clown wobbling on a ball. The closing subject has a murky tinge to it’s sound because Beethoven uses a D# note leading to an E note and an F# note leading to a G note, which he supports with harmonies of D#d7 and F#d7 respectively. But both harmonies lead to C, not Em or G as you would expect. The subjects reminds me of a skit with one man being tall and skinny and the man short and fat; Laurel and Hardy.

Beethoven uses two ideas for his precore in Dm; he expands the triplets he worked with from before into longer melodic turns while he uses phrases of three block chords from before, and both ideas swap registers with each other. For his first core, Beethoven uses broken 16th note octaves underscored with a conventional base; the treble is an expanded version of the turn while the baseline moves up or down a scale before dropping down a 4th or 5th. Beethoven travels through a rather tame route of relative harmonies, with nothing crazy; the progression goes from Dm to Gm to Bb back to Dm. The second core uses precore material, taking where it left off, and Beethoven now jumps to the distant key of Bbm. Beethoven then retransitions, preparing us for the first subject by going back to Dm and suspending us in A…

Which leads us to D, the wrong key. Again we see Beethoven’s humor; he begins the main subject in the wrong key, then “corrects” his “mistake” by returning to F, which he does by going from D to Gm, then holding us a while in C7. Beethoven deviates into a small variation during the transition so as not to repeat himself; he swaps treble and base while making a variation of the rising chord motif we saw from before. The closing subject has its usual properties, but Beethoven expands it while raising the dynamics to fortissimo to finish the movement on a strong note.

AllegrettoThe second movement is in Minuet Form in Fm, but while the mood is not of deep tragedy it is melancholic to balance out the humor of the other two movements. The best comedies in plays, books, and film have dark moments, part of the real and serious aspects that underpin the work. This sonata is no different, and the painful Fm minuet functions to give it depth by grounding it with heavier human emotions. Keep in mind that 18th century artists saw Fm and Ab as distant and dark keys, meaning Beethoven turns the light minuet into serious music.

The music of the minuet itself is simple in rhythm and arc to contrast the complex and odd melody of the main subject from the last music. Beethoven basically ascends and descends the Fm chord with parallel arpeggios, while also using Ed7, which changes to Eb to take us to Ab, the relative major. Beethoven then uses new material; a melody that now ascends the Ab scale, then suddenly drops to C, dominant of Fm. The alto voice joins in imitation while the base delays timing in keeping up to allow less plain harmonies.

Beethoven resumes his subject but adds many new elements to heighten the drama. He returns with the subject but an octave higher in the woodwinds, and he plays a striking sighing phrase; the dissonant Eb7as4 chord (the seventh note, Dh, augmented and containing Ab, the root of the subdominant) resolves to Ed (iibd). Beethoven takes the music to its logical conclusion with the last phrase, a codetta of sorts, by having the melody ascent up the Fm chord to the high F6 note.

The Trio in the dark and rich Db, contrasts the Fm Minuet with low notes and thick chords, suggesting a string ensemble to contrast the thin woodwinds in the Minuet. Beethoven borrows from the Minuet, making the melodic arc a rise up the Db scale, but suddenly he makes a leap before resolving it by a step into the Eb7 (dominant) harmony. This is a common tactic for Beethoven; to break a step-by-step melody with leaps or break arpeggios with step-by-step climbs, and he even emphasizes his leap with a sforzando, before resolving his sentence with a gentle arc to Ab. He repeats the sentence to cement the Trio in your ear but he plays a variation of it; he uses falling staccato notes like in a cello part and he drifts into Bbm, Ed7, and Fm to give the Trio a darker feel.

He develops his Trio by exploring the diminished chords and progressions he touched on earlier, but he does subvert the chord progressions you would expect by using a chromatic descending base. His big example is Ebm to Ed7 to Ad7 to Ab, and finally to Db. He lets the chromatic base take him to whatever diminished harmonies they offer rather than quickly resolving to Ab as another composer may do. This idea, of letting a melodic or base line give you harmonies to choose from, is something Romantic composers take advantage of, such as Chopin. And later, rather than finishing off the segment with a V7-I phrase, he uses Ed7 to Db9a to Db to create an extra segment that suspends us at the end. As we saw before, Early Beethoven is fond of suspending us in this way in a Minuet before resolving.

He returns us to the Fm Minuet using Db to Cd (diminished vii of Db) to mutate to C7 (dominant of Fm), then to Fm. The Minuet repeats as before except now the treble and base are syncopated and the base is a little more active, which Beethoven does to develop his material further even when wrapping things up. What use is a journey if you haven’t changed or don’t see things in a new way?

PrestoBeethoven returns us to a happy F key to play a breezy Rondo, but it has some fugal traits to it and heavily uses counterpoint. The entire Rondo is based on a subject, first heard in the base, that Beethoven uses constantly to build the entire movement, around as compact and austere as his 5th Symphony or Bach’s fugue in D from the Well-Tempered Clavier. The movement is a gem the student of Euterpe should not carelessly pass by.

Beethoven begins the movement as if he was writing a fugue; he puts the subject in the tenor, then alto, then soprano registers, a countersubject singing below. His harmonies are F & C for the subject in the tenor and alto registers, then C & G (harmonies around C, the dominant) for the subject in the soprano registers. So far, so good. Now you would expect Beethoven to use some free counterpoint to take us to Dm, where he will play the subject again. But he doesn’t do that; he condenses the subject, repeats it in even higher registers, and makes the music homophonic. He takes the melodic line very high to the F6 note then races it all the way down to C4 with a flourish of 16th notes. With harmonies; he jumps to A (submediant of C), a striking move, and progresses with A to Dm (iv/A) to G7 to C to smoothly move to a quiet closing phrase in C. Beethoven does all this in 32 measures.

What does Beethoven do now? He decides to develop his subject in a development-like section you see in Sonata Form. He jumps far away to Ab (submediant of C), a striking move similar to how he jumped to A before, and builds tension; he does so by having his subject, now in unison, slowly rise to higher registers. Now he has the subject swap around many different ranges alongside some free counterpoint, meanwhile moving from Ab to Bbm. He then keeps swapping the subject among soprano ranges, to have the soprano lines constantly imitate each other, with a basso continuo underneath, now in Fm to A7. Then free counterpoint in the soprano that is like the basso continuo while the tenor and alto play the subject in thirds at the same time, now in A.

Beethoven returns to D, now in a kind of bridge, but now he takes a piece of the subject to make some new material. Two countersubjects are almost the same as the subject, and they play along just fine, while a basso continuo persists, as he modulates back to F by progressing D to G to C to F to Bb (notice the subdominant). But Beethoven takes us to a new development section instead, now in two voices; he once more uses the subject but has it swap roles with free counterpoint based on the 16th note flourishes from before. Thus he moves from F to Gm to Bbm; now to a variation of the fugue-like beginning with the subject and countersubject in 16th notes to raise the pressure. Beethoven progresses the melodic line as before while he guides us back to F by basically moving to Fm, the mutating to F.

We are at last back to the gentle closing phrase, but it is not over yet; now we enter a brief coda, built like the bridge in D two pages back. But a piece has to finish, and Beethoven does so by going down the F scale in octaves, in crescendo, finishing the movement in a confidant fortissimo. The Comedy of Errors comes to fulfilling end.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I will continue analyzing Beethoven sonatas in blogs but I will no longer make YouTube videos on the subject as it takes way too much time. I have also struggled with some time to describe melodic line and harmony changes without being tedious, sounding like I’m merely describing every little thing in the music, and making YouTube videos does not help. I should hopefully do better. – I should still learn to condense this a bit. Sonata form movements are the hardest. It should only have 4 paragraphs.

The Cm sonata (Op. 10) is Beethoven’s first published piano sonata to have only three movements instead of four. Beethoven wrote the first four sonatas to sound like symphonies through many different means; he wrote them in four movements, wrote each movement to be large to allow subjects much space to develop, and often writes for orchestral parts such as clarinet parts in the Fm sonata (Op. 1) and horn parts in the Eb sonata (Op. 7).

Now Beethoven tries something different and writes a more typical sonata; with only three movements and with no obvious orchestral parts. Still, Beethoven develops his subjects and follows his ideas in a clear, forceful, concise way, in fact even more so in this sonata. It is useful to see the striking differences between this Cm sonata and the Fm sonata (Op. 2) Beethoven wrote a while back as both are dark and impassioned music but approached in very different ways.

The way Beethoven ends this sonata is also important; a fizzling out to a quiet finish rather than slamming thick chords at the end. Indeed Beethoven ends many future sonatas in this way as an alternate way to finishing a piece of music and fulfilling the journey back to the home key.

Allegro molto e con brio

The first movement is in sonata form and is based on the Mannheim rocket; an intense phrase where notes rise in a broken chord to a high register. The main subject in Cm is short but complex, broken into three parts. In the first part Beethoven forces two sharply contrasting colors together; a thundering Mannheim rocket played in dotted notes to make it even more intense followed by a soft sighing motif. In the second part Beethoven builds off a descending scale, starting at a high G (the dominant note), and repeats it, each new phrase more intense, until he hangs at a low G (again the dominant note). In the third part, Beethoven suddenly breaks away into new material again; right hand arpeggios resolving in Cm. Beethoven consistently plays Cm and Bd (diminished) chords the entire time, using Bd as a darker counterpart to G7. He uses only two chords for most of the main subject but he does much with them.

The transition is simply the Mannheim rocket again, using G (again) as the high note. Beethoven simply uses Cm and G the entire time and simply decides to break it off after he resolves in Cm. The main subject and transition here are very different from their counterparts in the Fm sonata (Op. 2). The Fm sonata main subject is far simpler as it slowly moves from piano to sforzando using a simple Mannheim rocket the entire time. The Fm sonata transition, by contrast, is complex as Beethoven makes a big deal modulating to Ab, using Dba (augmented) and Bbm to spice things up. But in this Cm sonata, it is quick and simple. Beethoven is fine jumping from Cm right to Eb (the mediant).

The subordinate subject is based on the submediant; the first phrase starts in Eb7, the second in C7, the third in Ab7. A simple descending base makes up the backbone while the soprano and alto parts fill the harmony in. From now on Beethoven stays in Eb, which is pretty typical for classical sonata form. The second subordinate subject is a rising arpeggio with an Alberti base underneath, harmonies simple Eb-Bb7. He quickly gets more interesting with a chromatic melody, using Ad and Aa harmonies. He thunders with the Mannheim rocket again for a while so he can lead us to the closing subject, but he uses Ebd and Cd7 instead of Bb. The closing subject itself is built on the small sighing motif we saw way back in the main subject to slowly fall to a low Eb, while Beethoven uses some Cm7 and Gm7. The purpose is to darken the Eb closing theme a bit and connect it to the main theme in Cm, to show how close we are to dark and minor keys.

Beethoven builds the development with two cores, both based on the less striking melodies in the exposition. He elevates those melodies by playing them in octaves in a very singing manner. But first he needs to make a bridge to lead you to the first core; and he does this with the Mannheim rocket subject in C (submediant leap from Eb), and he uses it like he did with the transition by cutting it off after he resolves. The first core in Fm is based off the filler melody of the first subordinate subject underscored by an Alberti base. The second core in Bbm is based off the second subordinate subject while the base is taken from the closing subject. The retransition is based off the sighing motif but he strings many motifs together to make a long melodic descent all the way from a high G (dominant) to middle C (tonic). Meanwhile, he keeps the base at G to emphasize a V-I return to the main subject. But do notice how many different harmonies Beethoven plays throughout; it’s anything but a boring V-I for 11 measures.

The main subject is just as before and Beethoven skips a transition altogether, making the journey even more streamlined. The subordinate subject comes right after, now in Db7 (IIb7 of Cm), and he breaks his descent by submediant theme to quickly move to Cm. However, do note how he frequently plays C also, the mutation of Cm to make the harmonies more interesting. But the quick resolution to Cm is a ruse. The second subordinate subject is in F instead (mediant of Db) then quickly goes to Fm (the subdominant of Cm). This is important as the subdominant is usually emphasized in a recapitulation but Beethoven delays for a while to keep the listener guessing. The closing subject neatly wraps it all up in Cm.

Adagio molto

The second slow movement is in sonata form without development but with a coda with a variation of the main subject. The main subject is in Ab and is played twice; the first in its “base” form and the second as a variation where the base becomes arpeggios and repeating 16th notes. The subject is based on a rising and falling third, the melody rises to a climax in Db (the subdominant) before making a long fall back to Ab. The transition is a striking contrast to the lyrical subject; a loud drop by two octaves. The harmonies sometimes blur together in the little sighing motifs and, while F7 is a striking submediant leap from Ab, the harmonies are the usual ones around Cm.

The subordinate subject in Eb is made of two different parts. The first part; we have a rising 3rd motif similar to the main subject, and it also peaks at a subdominant note (Ab in this case). The virtuoso 64th note arpeggios in Bb9 is a development of the rising 3rd. The second part; a long rising scale from G to Eb on dotted notes. This would be boring in itself but Beethoven uses Eba, Dd7, and Ad7 to make chromatic use of it. The variation that follows peaks in the harmony of Cb7, the tension highest in a distant key of Eb. The retransition is based on the subordinate subject and is in Eb, preparing to return to Ab.

The main subject has little change in it except some variation in the base, first dotted notes and later arpeggio triplets. The transition has an extra phrase; sighing motifs clumped together to make a chromatic descent to Db. Beethoven uses many distant keys such as Fb, Gbm, and Fhd7 (half diminished); a striking alternate way to going to the dominant. The usual method is F-Bb-Eb or Dm-Bb-Eb, but Beethoven plays odd F chords before going to Bb-Eb.

The subordinate subject and retransition are almost verbatim similar as before except now in Ab. The coda is a variation of the main subject, now in cantabile as we have a viola part in the middle made of syncopated notes. The coda has no dramatic peaks but simply slowly falls down the Ab scale: from Eb5 to Ab4, from Ab4 to Ab3.

Prestissimo

The finale is in sonata form but is very brief, much like rondos of classical sonatas, a breezy finish. Still, it has some weight. The main subject is based on a rising chord, this case Cm, but the melody dramatically peaks in dissonant F while the harmony is F#d7. The second time around Beethoven climbs up the G scale and peaks at F again while the harmony is in Fm. Then the rhythm intensifies to 16th notes so Beethoven can rush down to G (dominant) with flair. There is no transition. A jump from G to Eb happens instead. Notice how the melodic line of this main theme climaxes on a subdominant note, not too unlike the main theme from the last movement, while also highlighting G like in the first movement. The harmonies matter too; Beethoven sometimes mutates Cm to C, while he uses the F#d and Bd chords to lead to G and Cm.

The subordinate subject is based on a rising and falling 3rd with a distant last note; it reaches a sudden climax in Ab (subdominant). At first Beethoven falls to Bb into what seems a quiet finish but suddenly rises to Eb at the last moment; a creative way to avoid a typical resolution. The closing theme uses the turn motif of the main subject over different registers, and it peaks at Ab (again subdominant) before resolving to Eb. Beethoven then resorts to more distant harmonies; Ed and Bd, diminished versions of the tonic and dominant, and frequently uses Fm and Cm too. He does all this to make the ear less certain it is in Eb, making Cm stronger. He also drops a sudden Cb7; instead of going from Bb to Eb to goes from Bb to its Neapolitan (IIb7/V).

We only have a small development of the main subject motif; though in Eb it uses Bd, Dd, and Bb, all related by a 3rd. Beethoven also briefly uses C7 to again disrupt the expected Cm and he develops the melodic line by having it rise to a very high F (subdominant of Cm). The main subject makes little change while the subordinate subject is in C (mutation of Cm), except with a chord progression from Dm-D7-G. The closing theme is different, starting with the main subject motif rather than a tremolo. The next part has the same chord structure as before except tailored around Cm; this includes C#d leading G and the sudden drop now in Ab7. The closing theme halts, holds the tension on suspended Ab7, withholding the ending.

We enter a brief coda based on the subordinate subject in Db, the music suspended in a slow calando. It’s mostly V7-I except for a brief Ebm-Eb-Ab (chromatic base) and how the colando suspends in Ad7. Then, an abrupt eruption as the music resumes its normal tempo, but rather than race to the finish it fizzles out, slowly moving from Ab to C. Beethoven does this by pretending the C is just Cm and playing the usual nexus of neighboring chords. The melodic line, back in the main subject motif, starts at a high Eh note but falls down the C chord to lowest C on Beethoven’s pianoforte. The lowest range of the pianoforte back then was F1.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: As interesting as it is to analyze Beethoven’s sonatas this may be my last analysis. Even if I did analyze each sonata for my benefit as a composer I would still need to analyze symphonies, string quartets, and works from other composers. I would never get to write anything of my own ever again! The best path to take now is to work on my ear training, sight reading, and piano playing. Then I can easily analyze any music I listen to.

The Op. 7 Eb sonata is the young Beethoven’s most massive piano piece; only the Hammerklavier sonata will surpass it in size. Beethoven seems to have truly struggled to take his music to the next level by putting more stuff into the sonata; longer subjects, denser harmonies, more detours to prolong the music before resolving it. The sonata is truly a great work and while the score is cumbersome to look at the music itself is smooth, leniently winding down its way like a river into the sea.

Of his first sonatas, like mini-symphonies, this one is the most like a symphony of them all in scope, grandeur, and orchestral-like score for the piano. His later sonatas feel less like symphonies not because they are lesser works but because they don’t have the symphony’s four-movement structure or formal and harmonic progression you hear in symphonies. On the contrary, the later piano sonatas are greater works as Beethoven strives more for depth and less to impress as time goes on, likewise making the sonatas more connected as he outgrows the stilted formula of a four-movement sonata.

0:00 – The first movement, in sonata form, is famous for its horn calls and gently rising and falling triplets, but don’t think Beethoven uses 6/8 time only for triplets, he creates all sorts of different rhythms. Beethoven uses a false closing theme to mislead the audience into thinking the movement is over only to float around in many different chords, all this for a striking effect. Beethoven uses diminished chords and the chords they lead to in the transition more densely than he had ever before.

8:23 – The second movement is a complicated sonata-rondo form where the main subject refrains like the chorus part of a pop song yet the other rondo parts behave like sections of sonata form; transitions, subordinate subjects, development sections, and so on. Beethoven keeps putting turning the main subject this way and that as he gives it different embellishments, which he contrasts with a stark and gloomy subordinate subject in Gm.

15:24 – The third movement is a gentle minuet based on the Eb chord and a cadence based on chords as well. Beethoven develops the minuet subject in Ed7, the Neapolitan of Eb, assumes a false reprise, and trails away. The pause he takes before he resumes is a musical joke as if he forgot the script and doesn’t know how to get back. The trio is a small tempest in Ebm where triplets are once more used, this time with vigor and angst. Again, Beethoven avoids convention as he modulates from Ebm to Bbm instead of Bb and begins the development on that same key.

21:24 – The fourth movement is the greatest in emotion and harmonic density. The subject itself uses such blurred harmonies and changes them so often it was a nightmare for me to analyze; he pulls this off by using four voices while using the base to constantly hum away in 16th notes. Many parts of the rondo are like this, with gentle singing melodies underscored by blurred and complicated harmonies, they create a very gentle and surreal feeling. Then Beethoven jolts you with a terrible beast to contrast the beauty, a creature made of strong chords and clear minor harmonies. But Beethoven tames his beast, as he often does, and rewards beauty with the laurel; in the coda the terrible beast transforms into a sweet melody to bid you goodbye, the most beautiful passage Beethoven ever wrote up to this time

At this moment I have a strong grasp of Beethoven’s personal style with harmonies and overall music structure, at least the style of early Beethoven. He tries very hard to avoid the cliché I-IV-V harmonies in classical music to the point where it almost feels forced at times. He is fond of taking you to remote keys using otherwise ordinary intervals and builds many a harmonic structure on the 3rd interval. The whole idea is to make the music dense and weighty while also expanding the overall structure of the peace by delaying IV-V-I cadences in creative ways.

Examples:
– The 5th interval normally takes you to V, the 4th to IV, but Beethoven may take you to v and iv instead, the minor versions of those keys. C to Gm is one example.

– The 3rd interval normally takes you to iii or vi, which usually comes before a IV or V and then I. Beethoven takes you to a major or a minor version of those keys that is very remote. He will go from Eb to G, or C to Ab. He may even do something crazier like take you from B to Abm.

– The whole step (M2nd interval) usually takes you to ii, which resolves into IV or V and then I. Beethoven instead takes you to II or VIIb such as C to D or C to Bb.

– The half step (m2nd interval) is often used to go to the Neopolitan (IIb) before going to IV or V then I. Beethoven does that but he also likes going down a half step to a remote harmony, such as Eb to D.

– Beethoven is fond of using diminished chords and the leading tone (especially a chromatic base) to lead to a chord in an interesting way, even if that chord is common in a certain key, like C to F#d to G. He will sometimes pull a twist where the diminished chord leads to the dominant of its intended target, like C to F#d to D. During these times he may leap by a tritone, the Devil’s interval.

– Beethoven sometimes likes to mutate a chord into many different forms; such as D to Da or D7a or Dd to Dm. In this sonata he sometimes goes from Dm to Eb instead of Dd to Eb. Sometimes he will simply he happy to turn a major to a minor chord and back again, something other composers like Schubert did well. Sometimes Beethoven will even play a minor version and major version of the harmony at the same time.

– Beethoven will blend two chords together or mismatch the melody and base. This often creates a chord, like one in Eb, which can be read as Ebs4, Eb9, or Eb11. (He is also fond of minor 7 chords.) Beethoven will sometimes delay a melody, usually to keep it in the dominant of a chord, while the base will play the intended chord itself on schedule. Baroque composers often used this technique but at the end of pieces, not in the middle.

– Another trick is to play an ordinary melody yet make the harmonies going with it to be anything but.

When it comes to creating music subjects, Beethoven builds them from small cells based on intervals; in fact he builds the entire piece from these cells. Some composers are painters as Debussy, others are poets as Chopin, others are miniaturists as Scarlatti. Beethoven is an architect and sculptor, and so he builds his music brick by brick, chiseling out the raw stone of his improvised ideas until they are concise, defined, and strong. Beethoven places intervals, counterpoint, and voice leading over typical harmonies more and more as he grows as an artist so by the time he composes the Great Fugue he writes “pure interval music” as Stravinsky described it.

As for melody, Beethoven is usually careful to balance close intervals such as the step with striking leaps up or down the keyboard. He will often create the most lyrical music out of simply going up or down a scale or chord. As for large intervals, he tends to save them to help craft a distinct form to the melody, highlight a key point in the melody, or simply to strike a strong emotion.

I still feel sketchy when analyzing the melody or thematic material. Otherwise, my formal and harmonic analysis is fine. I may not analyze any more sonatas or only sonatas I really like since it may take a year to analyze them all and I would really like to compose my own music thank you very much. Improving my own skills is the reason I do such tedious work in the first place. Beethoven’s 3rd sonata is a brilliant finish to a unique triplet of works, each showing very different moods. The Fm sonata was tragic and brooding, the D sonata was lyrical, the C sonata is vivid and dazzling; it’s virtuoso score hints at piano concerto material.

As usual, a complete formal and harmonic analysis of the piano sonata is in the video above, an overview of the sonata’s overall form below.

0:00 The 1st movement, in sonata form, has the most distinct piano concerto feel to it, since the transitioning passages do look very much like a piano accompaniment to an orchestra. The main subject on the other hand is not that energetic by itself but does have enormous potential energy, which Beethoven exploits by setting it off like dynamite. Unlike with the earlier sonatas, Beethoven’s doesn’t focus so much on the main subject; most of the music in this movement sounds like stock set of riffs Beethoven used to improvise, which he did a lot early in his career.

9:30 The 2nd movement is far off in the mediant key of E, a relation we see for the first time. The movement itself is made of two very different characters; the first one is a rather complex lyrical melody Beethoven goes out of his way to leave unresolved, the second character devotes the left hand for a singing baseline with dotted rhythms lifted from the first character while the right hand plays arpeggios similar to those of a Baroque prelude.

16:40 The 3rd movement has cheeky scherzo that uses F# and starts the downbeat at A, which confuses the key of C major. The scherzo consists of a descending subject that changes registers (and hands) as it keeps going down the keyboard. Meanwhile, other voices join it in counterpoint, often based on the playful turn at the very beginning. The minor trio is more conventional; the right hand plays triplet arpeggios while the left hand plays a simple base. The coda is built on the Bdim-C cadence (vii/I) as opposed to the more usual G7-C cadence (V7/I). All this is subtle humor on Beethoven’s part but sadly most of the jokes are lost to us as we don’t understand the language of sonata form like Beethoven and friends did. It’s hard to get parodies and jokes when you don’t speak the language fluently.

19:57 The 4th movement is an extensive rondo as Beethoven returns to the main subject over and over again, changing it in many different ways, while departing from it afterward in a new direction almost each time. What you get is a pretty complicated rondo, so complicated you could even see sonata form elements in it, complete with two expositions, a long development section, two recapitulations, and a coda. Beethoven, as I said before, wanted to give the finale of a piece the most weight, and tried different ideas throughout his career. He often settled this problem in his early days by expanding the rondo by making it more like a sonata.